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Book . ■(!?<? 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 

















National Photo Service 


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CUZZORT-TRASK HEALTH SERIES 

HEALTH AND 
HEALTH PRACTICES 


BY 

BELVA CUZZORT, A.M. 

IN COLLABORATION WITH 

JOHN W. TRASK, M.D. 

SURGEON, UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 


REVISED 


D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON 
ATLANTA DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO 



COPYRIGHT, 1923 AND 1928, BY 
D. C HEATH & CO 

2 J 8 



©CIA U)2 

' " y * ; 

PRINTED IN U. S. Ao 

NOV -l '92B 






PREFACE 


This text is developed after a plan that is successful with younger 
classes. Each section begins with a short health-impression lesson. 
The lesson is followed by supplementary readings. These are for 
the most part human-interest stories bearing on the health lesson. 
They show the significance of certain health impressions, and give 
them meaning through concrete settings. These readings bring 
motive to bear upon the health idea because they show the idea as 
motive. Many of the readings describe experiences of boys and 
girls, for children like to know about the doings of those who are 
like themselves. 

The health lesson proper differs from those given in the earlier 
grades because the child has developed physically and mentally. 
He is ready for impressions about his bigger self and his new in¬ 
terests. His body has developed. His activities have increased 
many fold, and body-control and variety of performances open the 
way to the finest of ideals for a well-developed body. He does 
more to care for himself than formerly, and he can be systematic 
about it. Thus his impressions of the care needed to keep his body 
sound are greater in number and variety, and hygiene and sanita¬ 
tion have a new importance. The team game has come, showing 
that social activities and interests are growing. He learns that it 
takes cooperation for people to keep well and free from disease. 
Thus he gains many impressions of the value of a good body, and 
these need only to be expressed in simple language to serve as 
affective aids in preserving health. 

When the child has completed this text along with the health¬ 
training program into which it fits, he will have grown toward an 
ideal of physical development and gained a vision that will remain 
with him. 

iii 


IV 


PREFACE 


The authors express thanks to Dr. Harry C. Oberholser, Orni¬ 
thologist, for careful criticism of the Nature Study facts given in 
this volume; to Dr. N. E. Mclndoo, of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, and Mr. N. Hollister, Superintendent of the Zoologi¬ 
cal Park, Washington, D. C., for nature study information contrib¬ 
uted; to Prof. C. A. Metzler, Director Physical Education, High 
Schools, Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Glenna Smith Tinnin, 
Washington, D. C., for providing photographs illustrating physi¬ 
cal development and physical training exercises, to Masters Ful¬ 
kerson, whose photographs illustrate posture and body perform¬ 
ances, and to Frances Fuller, whose photographs appear in the 
last pages of the book. 

Appreciation is expressed for material supplied by members of 
State Departments of Education, and for photographs from the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture. 


CONTENTS 


LESSON PAGE 

I. We Can Have Strong Bodies . i 

Theodore Roosevelt had a Frail Body as a Boy, but 

became a Man of Vigor . 2 

A Boy Scout . 3 

A Girl Scout . 5 

II. We Want Sound Bodies . 6 

How American Soldiers made their Bodies Sound. . 8 

Sound Bodies for Forty Million Children .... 9 

III. Feeding Our Bodies .11 

An Experiment in Feeding Potato Plants. ... 12 

Gains in Weight made by Some Underweight Children 14 

IV. Why We Cook Foods .17 

The Sense of Taste in Insects and Other Animals. . 18 

V. Choosing and Caring for Food .20 

Some Important Facts about Milk .22 

American Boys and Girls as Gardeners .23 

Interesting Observations on How Food is Secured 
among Wild Life .24 

VI. Exercise for Growing Boys and Girls .... 26 

Helps for Healthful Exercise. 28 

Interesting Facts about Exercise of Creatures in 
Nature . 2 9 

VII. Our Body Skeleton: How Freely We can Move it 31 

Interesting Facts about the Movements of Animals . 35 

Some Facts about the Movements of Boys and Girls. 36 

VIII. Our Eyes and Their Care . 39 

About the Eyes of Creatures in Nature .... 4 2 

Why Thirteen Musicians Wear Glasses . 43 

The Right Eye Glasses . 43 


v 
















VI 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


LESSON 

How the Railroad Station at the Nation’s Capital is 

Lighted at Night. 43 

Color Tints for Walls and Ceiling. 44 

The Lighting of a Class Room. 44 

IX. We Can Have Sound Teeth. 47 

Dental Clinics. 49 

Discovery Made through a Dental Clinic .... 50 

X. The Right Way to Stand. 53 

Interesting Observations about how Birds and Other 
Animals Balance Themselves. 55 

XI. Setting-Up Exercises. 5 $ 

Animals Give Signals.60 

The Command “Attention!”.61 

How Animals Keep Themselves in Condition. . . 61 

XII. How Our Teeth Grow .63 

A Dentist Tells how a Tooth Grows.64 

Interesting Facts about the Teeth of Animals. . . 65 

XIII. How We Play.67 

Hurdle Races.69 

Great Swimmers. 7 ° 

Interesting Observations of Play among Creatures 
of Nature. 7 1 

XIV. Our Lungs and Their Care. 73 

Helps for Good Breathing. 77 

XV. Walking. 

Shoes and the Feet that Wear Them. 79 

Why Some Armies Do Not Have Their Soldiers 

March in Step. 79 

Interesting Observations on the Propelling Motion 
of Creatures of Nature. 79 

XVI. Rest and Sleep. 81 

Helps for Sound Sleep. 82 

Helps for Taking Rest. 82 




















CONTENTS vii 

LESSON PAGE 

XVII. Our Bodies Learn to Do Things ...... 83 

“Do Small Things Well” says the President ... 84 

Do Nature Creatures Learn to do Things .... 85 

XVIII. We Can Make Our Work Easier.87 

How Farm Work is Made Easier by Good Machinery 87 
Doing Sitting Work by Standing and Standing Work 

by Sitting.88 

How a Man Loaded 47^ Tons of Pig Iron Easier 

than He Had Been Loading 12 Tons.89 

More Work in Less Time. ..89 

XIX. Our Skin and Its Care.91 

Interesting Facts about the Sense of Touch ... 93 

Facts about Odors of Insects, Beasts, and Birds . 94 

Interesting Facts about the Coverings of Lower 
Creatures . 94 

XX. Our Ears and Their Care.96 

Interesting Facts about Ears and Hearing. ... 97 

XXI. Our Special Senses.99 

Helen Keller.100 

What Special Senses Serve Insects, Birds, and Animals 103 

XXII. The Nervous System.105 

Observations about the Nervous Systems of Nature 
Creatures.106 

XXIII. The Brain.109 

How Sleep Helps Us to Remember. hi 

“We Learn to Skate in Summer and Swim in Winter” 112 

XXIV. “My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is”.114 

What a Poet Wants in the Kingdom of His Mind . 116 

Signs of Intelligence Among Birds and Beasts. . . 117 

The 4-H Clubs. I]C 7 

XXV. How We Form Habits..119 

A Boy Discovers the Great Law in Forming Habits . 120 

Animals Learn Habits.120 

















Vlll 


CONTENTS 


XXVI. Seven Important Habits. 122 

Why We Like the Story of “Honest Abe” . . . 124 

One Dollar Saved Each Week. I2 4 

XXVII. Why Growing Boys and Girls Should Not Smoke 

Tobacco or Use Tea or Coffee. 126 

Something to Think About. I2 7 

Tiny Dogs for Sale. I2 9 

XXVIII. Safety First. I2 9 

A Few Illustrations of Safety First in the Nature 

World. I 3 ° 

A Safety Essay by Stanley Newcomb.132 

Helps in Learning Safety First. *34 

XXIX. First Aid. I 3 6 

How First Aid As It Is Known To-day Began . . 137 

A National Contest in First Aid.138 

Life-Saving Service . . . .. *39 

Instances of Sympathy and Care Shown Among 
Nature Creatures. I 4 I 

XXX. Germ Diseases and How to Prevent Them ... 142 

Facts about Protection of Animals from Diseases . 144 

Facts about Protection of Plants from Diseases 144 

Interesting Discoveries and the Benefits They Bring 145 

XXXI. Germ Diseases and How to Prevent Them ( Con¬ 

tinued) . T d 3 

Facts about Conditions that Make It Easy for 
Creatures of the Nature World to Take Disease . 149 

*‘ Typhoid Mary ”. 1 49 

XXXII. We Need Health Departments and Health Offi¬ 
cers to Prevent Disease. * 5 * 

Appendix. J 53 

Games and Other Activities. I S 3 

A. Rough and Ready Games. 153 

B. Team Ball Games. x 54 

C. Performance that Can Be Timed or Measured. 155 
















CONTENTS ix 

PAGE 

D. Running. 158 

E. Stunts Old and New.162 

F. Balancing.165 

G. Feats and Forfeits.167 

H. Requirements for Dairy Maid and Dress¬ 

maker’s Badges in Girl Scouts . . . . 168 

I. Requirements for the Handicraft Badge in 

Boy Scouts.169 

J. Exercises for the Free Body.170 

Index . ..175 










% > * V ' ; 


Atalanta, the Running Girl 

From a Greek statue 






HEALTH AND HEALTH 
PRACTICES 


I. WE CAN HAVE STRONG BODIES 

We can have strong bodies, for we can do things that 
make them strong. Our bodies are hungry to do things 
just as they are hungry for food. It is natural for them 
to do things. It is natural for them to have strength. 
They will grow stronger and stronger. We can have good 
bodies to live in nearly all our lives if we help make 
them good. 

We may think we jump and run and play games just 
for fun, but we do these things because our bodies want to 
do them. We jump as far as we can and run as fast as we 
can because our bodies are hungry to do all they can do. 
When we let them do these things, we make them strong. 

When we have done about as much as we can, we are 
tired. When our bodies are a little tired all over, they are 
ready to rest. As we grow stronger we can do more and 
more before w r e become tired. We should do enough to 
make our bodies a little tired each day. This is the way 
we make them strong. 

We make our bodies a little stronger when we stand and 
sit. We make our arms stronger when we do things with 
our arms. But to make our whole bodies stronger we 


2 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


must do things with our whole bodies. We do things with 
our whole bodies when we play running games, when we 
walk and climb and swim, and when we do some kinds of 
work. 

Of course we all want the best bodies we can have. We 
do not want them to become weak before we have lived 
half of our lives. We can have good ones if we help them 
grow strong. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Theodore Roosevelt had a Frail Body as a Boy, but 
became a Man of Vigor 

Theodore Roosevelt, our former President, was a frail boy, and 
he was still frail as a youth. In his story of his life he tells what 
led him to decide to make his weak body strong. He was at that 
time fourteen years old. Of this he writes: 

“Having an attack of asthma I was sent off by myself to Moose- 
head Lake. On the stage-coach thither I encountered a couple of 
other boys who were about my own age, but much more compe¬ 
tent and also much more mischievous. I have no doubt but that 
they were good-natured boys, but they were boys! . . . They 
proceeded to make life miserable for me. . . . When I finally tried 
to fight I discovered that either one singly could not only handle 
me . . . but handle me so as not to hurt me much. The experi¬ 
ence taught me what probably no amount of good advice could 
have taught me. . . . With my father’s permission I started to 
learn to box. ... I was a painfully slow and awkward pupil, 
and certainly worked two or three years before I made any notice¬ 
able improvement whatever.” 

He was at that time living in New York City. But each fall 
and winter he used to go to the North woods where he could walk 
and climb in the wild out-of-doors. 


WE CAN HAVE STRONG BODIES 


3 


Through his steady efforts to gain sturdy health, he had lost 
much of his early frailness before he went West to live as a rancher. 
Most of us remember 
him first as a Rough 
Rider. By this time 
he had become active 
and strong. We did 
not know the years of 
struggle in early life. 

Theodore Roosevelt 
so succeeded in gaining 
the health he wanted 
that he not only rode 
and hunted over the 
broad Western lands of 
the United States but 
he served in our cavalry 
during the Spanish- 
American War and 
afterwards became a 
world hunter, hunting 
and studying wild ani¬ 
mal life in North and 
South America, and 
other parts of the world. He was rider, athlete, hunter, author, 
statesman — and in all successful. 

A Boy Scout 

Any boy twelve years of age or older who can show his ability 
to do a few simple things can by taking the scout pledge become 
a scout. As a beginning member he is called a Tenderfoot. 
While he is a Tenderfoot, he keeps the scout laws and learns to do 
what is required of a Tenderfoot scout. He takes the boy scout' 
setting-up exercises to make his body stronger. But before he is 







4 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

promoted to the Second Class, he must show that be can make a 
mile in twelve minutes, using the scout gait of walking fifty steps 


Boy Scout 

and running fifty steps. Before he can be promoted to a First 
Class scout he must be able to swim fifty yards, and must make a 





WE CAN HAVE STRONG BODIES 


5 


round trip alone to a point at least seven miles away (fourteen 
miles in all). These are not all the requirements to be a First Class 
scout, but they are some of the important ones. 

The point is that as the scout members are promoted from one 
class to another, they make their bodies stronger. They show 
this by what they can do. 

A Girl Scout 

There are also three classes in girl scouts, the same three that 
boys have. Girls become members of scout groups very much as 
boys do. Girl scouts are promoted for showing ability to do things 
and for giving service, just as boy scouts are. The girls, too, must 
make their bodies strong. They too play games and take setting¬ 
up exercises and camp out in the open when they can. A girl 
scout cannot be promoted to a First Class scout unless she can walk 
a mile in twenty minutes. 

This does not mean that she is always to walk at this rate, for 
some naturally walk faster than others. It is only a way of testing 
how strong she has grown, and how well she can use her body. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What makes our bodies strong? 

2. How is it that they grow strong naturally? 

3. What do we do with our whole bodies? 

4. Just what did Theodore Roosevelt’s experience on the stage¬ 
coach teach him? 

5. Most people when they go to the North woods go in summer. 
What do you think of his going in the fall and winter? 

6. How did Roosevelt make his frail body strong? 

7. Let the boys secure the Boy Scout Handbook and read 
“How to be Physically Strong,” page 206 (1928 edition), and 
“Physical Development,” page 429. 

8. Let the girls study pages 429, 430 in Scouting for Girls. 

Reference. — If the book is in the school library, read Walter Prichard 
Eaton’s The Boy Scouts of Berkshire. 


II. WE WANT SOUND BODIES 


We want sound bodies. We can have sound ones, for 
we can take care of them and keep them sound. 

As we grow up we can keep our bodies sound. We do 
not need to let them be broken and diseased. We can 
keep every part of them sound. 

If some parts are weak, we can have them made 
strong before they cause much harm. If any parts are 
diseased, we can try to help Nature cure them. We can 
take care of our bodies and keep them growing well and 
keep them healthy. 

We can take care of our lungs and they will breathe 
easily. 

We can take care of our eyes and they will let us 
see well. 

We can care for our teeth and we will have good teeth 
to use. 

We can keep our blood healthy. We can have all 
parts of our bodies sound. 

If we have sound healthy bodies, we can make them 
strong. Then we can do the things we want to do in 
work and play. 

We should take as good care of our bodies as we can. 
If they are diseased, we should try to cure them before 
much harm is done. We should keep the bodies we live 
in all our lives as sound as they can be kept. 

6 


WE WANT SOUND BODIES 


9 


State Governments help in this large task. The United States was 
the first country in the world to establish in its National Govern¬ 
ment a children’s bureau. This was in 1912. Some of the chil¬ 
dren who read this page are living and healthy today because of 
what this bureau did to give them a healthy babyhood. The Con¬ 
gress of the United States every year appropriates money to pay 
for the publication of bulletins furnishing information on how to 
keep healthy the nation’s children. Does your State Government 
have a department of 
child welfare or child 
hygiene? You may dis¬ 
cover at first hand what 
is done to help you keep 
your body sound by vis¬ 
iting a children’s clinic. 

If there is not one in 
your community or at 
your school, find where 
the nearest one is. At 
the clinic the bodies of 
children are repaired. 

Holes in teeth are filled. 

Eyes are tested to see if 
the sight is good, and 
ears to see if the children hear well. The doctor looks into the throat 
to see if there are adenoid growths or swollen tonsils. A nurse takes 
the weight. At some clinics and in some schools there is a nutrition 
class for children whose bodies from lack of the right kind of food 
or from other cause are not well nourished. Some clinics are on 
wheels. The traveling clinic goes from community to community. 
Some clinics are for babies only. Here a doctor or nurse will advise 
mothers how to keep their babies healthy. Sometimes the mothers 
and others of the community go to the clinic to learn the best care 
to give children, first aid, home care of the sick and other things. 



Courtesy Utah Public Health Assn. 

A Traveling Clinic 





io HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


A place of this kind may be called a health center. The purpose 
of the clinic or health center is to help the people of the community, 
particularly the growing children, to have sound, healthy bodies. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How can we keep our bodies sound? 

2. What was done to repair the bodies of young men so that they 
could be soldiers? 

3. How did the life at camp cause them to profit quickly from 
the medical care given them? 

4. What is done at children’s clinics? 

5. Tell of your experience at such a clinic. 

6. What is done at clinics for babies? 

7. Do you know of any babies that are taken to clinics? What 
care is advised for the baby? 

8. What are children’s clinics for? 

9. Tell of a health center in your community, if there is such. 

10. If you have a school nurse, tell how her work is like that 

at a health center. 


HI. FEEDING OUR BODIES 

Foods help us to have sound bodies. Our bones must 
have the right foods or they do not grow well. Our 
muscles need proper foods. So do the nerves and brain. 
The body liquids which help the organs of the body to 
function, need the right substances. 

To keep our bodies warm and give us energy we should 
have such food as: 

Bread and butter, 

Oatmeal, 

Potatoes and rice. 

To build them we should have: 

Plenty of milk, 

Some eggs, 

A little lean meat, 

Leafy vegetables. 

To give them certain substances they need we should 
have: 

Milk, 

Fruits, as prunes, oranges, apples, and pineapple, 
Vegetables, as onions, lettuce, celery, turnips, and 
spinach. 

From these different foods we build our bodies, and 
keep them warm and able to do their work. The foods 
give them small quantities of lime, salts, iron, and other 
minerals. These help make our bones. The muscles 


i2 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


use a little of these minerals too. Almost all parts of the 
body use some of all the different foods. 

We do not need many kinds of foods, but we should 
have those we do need regularly. Everything that grows 
should have its own kind of food. Plants should have 
their foods, animals theirs, and people should have all of 
the different foods their bodies need. 

Some people have become diseased from living on 
white bread or macaroni, without other food; others have 
become diseased from eating only polished rice, and 
others from living on corn bread and syrup without milk 
or eggs and other fresh foods. To grow well and keep 
our bodies sound we should have several different kinds 
of foods. 

While we should take care to feed our bodies wisely, we 
should not expect this to take the place of sleep, rest, 
and exercise. It is by proper foods and other good care, 
that we make our bodies as good as they can be. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

An Experiment in Feeding Potato Plants 

The picture on page 13 shows three piles of potatoes and the po¬ 
tato patch in which they grew. The three piles might have been 
of equal size. They came from an equal number of hills. They 
grew in the same field. The plants were cared for (all over the 
field) in the same way. But they did not have the same foods. 

In the part of the field where the middle pile of potatoes grew 
no food for the potato plant was added to the soil. The plants 
grew and produced their potatoes on what food the soil already 
had, but it lacked one food that potato plants need. Men from 


FEEDING OUR BODIES 


J 3 


the U. S. Department of Agriculture who make it their business to 
study the plant foods in soil had found that it lacked the nitrogen 
needed for producing a good yield of potatoes. So the best potato 
crop did not grow in this part of the field. 



These Three P les of Potatoes Represent Plants 
Differently Fed 


In one part of the field the proper amount of nitrogen was put 
into the soil. That is where the very large pile of potatoes grew. 

The experts in soil foods wanted to find out how many potatoes 
would grow if they used a food other than the nitrogen which 
they had found the soil lacked. So in one part of the field they 
put food into the soil that the potato plants did not need. It did 
not take the place of the nitrogen that they did need. The little 
pile of potatoes grew in that part of the field. 

The largest pile of potatoes grew where the soil had all the foods 
that potato plants need to produce well. The middle-sized pile 
grew where one essential food — nitrogen — was lacking. The 







14 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


smallest pile grew where the soil was given the wrong food instead 
of the needed nitrogen. 

Gains in Weight made by Some Underweight Children 1 

The writer saw a group of ten or twelve children on a Saturday 
morning of a bright winter day in the lecture room of the Chicago 
Art Institute. They did not weigh nearly so much as children 
of their age and height usually do. But on this Saturday they 
met together because during the week each one had tried to gain all 
the weight he could. Not one of the group had gained less than two 
pounds. The doctor, who was also present, was a specialist on 
the nutrition of children. He was surprised at such large gains, 
for ten ounces in a month is a good increase for children io to 13 
years old — which were the ages of most of the group. Yet the 
Jieast gain made was at the rate of 136 ounces a month. 

What had these underweight children done to make this unusual 
record? They had simply tried to see how much they could gain. 
They had tried to make the best record they could, just as a strong 
boy or girl tries to make a good record in running a race. 

Some time before, they had learned, through talking with the 
specialist, what mistakes they were making. One of them was 
nervous and rested very little; another slept little; the oldest 
boy, who was not the biggest boy, stayed up late at night and 
skipped meals several times a week; one went to bed in a noisy 
room and did not go to sleep for a long while; another did not eat 
enough food and did not take time to eat properly. So it was 
with each: their way of living was not the most healthful. None 
of them had badly decayed teeth or poor sight or other parts of 
their bodies diseased or broken. 

The specialist had been sent to the school. The children had 
listened to him. They wanted to see if they could gain in weight. 

x The incident told here came from health work carried on through 
the Elizabeth McCormack Memorial, Chicago, Illinois. 


FEEDING OUR BODIES 


i5 


Their parents and teachers became interested too. So when the 
children began to gain in weight, they were encouraged at home 
and school. 

This is what a ten-year-old girl did: She went home from school 
each day an hour before noon. She rested in a quiet room. Her 
mother prepared for her a good hot lunch. She took time to enjoy 
the meal. In the middle of the afternoon she drank a cup of warm 
milk. She made it her business all during the week to live as a 
happy, healthy child should live, and by doing so she gained more 
weight than she had gained in several weeks before. 

The oldest boy, who was fifteen years old, but no larger than 
many boys at twelve, proved one of the most capable at the week’s 
task. He went to bed early, ate regularly, and selected his food 
wisely. His gain was four pounds. 

Some of the children had not needed to change their foods or 
eating habits so much. They played and rested as they should, 
and were hungry at meal time, as they naturally should be. They 
had a good time all the week. It was like a game. They were 
glad to show their records on the Saturday morning. They ex¬ 
hibited them just as boys exhibit their prize ears of corn at a farm 
crop exhibit. 

Will they keep gaining weight so fast? No, when they have 
made up what they had neglected to gain before, they will go on 
growing naturally as children do. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Name foods that keep us warm and give us energy to do 
things. 

2. Name those that give minerals for the bones, muscles, and 
other parts. 

3. Name those that furnish bulk. 

4. What ones are important in building our bodies? 

5. Why should we eat of all the different foods regularly? 


16 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

What happens from living on foods such as macaroni, rice, corn- 
meal and syrup? Name foods to use with any one of these foods. 

6. Tell why the piles of potatoes were of different size. How 
many kinds of food did the middle-sized pile lack? 

7. Have you seen a farm animal properly cared for and fed? 
Tell how different this animal looked than one not properly cared 
for. 

8. Children 10 to 15 years of age do not usually gain over 12 
ounces a month. How was it that the children described above 
gained so much? Would they keep gaining like that week after 
week? Explain. When would they gain gradually as it is natural 
to do? What changes in eating did the girl make? What else 
besides foods are important in increasing weight? 

9. Why should a boy or girl not weigh too much? 

10. If a child is not growing as well as he should because of 
adenoid growths or bad teeth, what is the best thing to do? 


IV. WHY WE COOK FOODS 


We cook most of our foods. We make them taste 
better by cooking them. We also make them easier to 
digest. 

In the walls that line the stomach and intestines are 
little glands that give out digestive juices. These juices 
mix with the foods we eat and get them ready for the 
blood. They do not mix well with foods that are in big 
hard pieces or with raw foods, such as uncooked flour, 
potatoes, and oatmeal. They mix well with foods that 
are well cooked. Also there are more of these juices 
when the foods we eat taste good to us. Thus, we see 
that we feed our bodies better by cooking our foods well. 

We should make our foods taste as well as we can. We 
should cook meats and vegetables to get the best flavors 
they have in them. We should mix foods together and 
season them to make them taste better. We should have, 
for cooking, foods that are fresh or that have been properly 
kept and have not lost their flavors. We should not cook 
spoiled foods or put a lot of spices in the foods we cook. 
We should get the flavors in the foods themselves. We 
should take care to prepare our foods so we will like them. 
When we enjoy the taste of our food, it digests much 
better and does us more good. 

In cooking foods, we should not lose or destroy parts 
in them that our bodies need. Over-cooking very often 


17 


18 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


destroys the life-giving qualities. While it is important 
that some foods should be well cooked, it is also important 
to eat each day some raw foods, such as milk, ripe fruits 
and green vegetables. We should not lose the juices of 
vegetables in cooking them. If we boil potatoes and throw 
away the water, we lose the best part. 

Toast, soft-boiled eggs, stewed fruits and vegetables, 
broths, and custard are among the cooked foods that are 
most easily digested. But meats that have been roasted 
slowly, and bread and oatmeal that are well done, are 
also easily digested. Fried foods and rich pastries are 
usually hard to digest. 

We chew foods better if they taste well. Then we taste 
them more, and we do not have to eat so much to satisfy 
our appetites. 

It is very important to us that we feed our bodies as 
well as we can. It is very important that we cook our 
foods properly. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

The Sense of Taste in Insects and Other Animals 

In wild life creatures usually accept their foods as they are 
found without special preparation. But they have a sense of 
taste, and this is often very keen. 

A keeper in a large zoological park says that animals fed for a 
time on the cold storage meats are quick to notice the change 
when given fresh meats. 

Ants soon leave alone honey with strychnine in it. 

Flies select foods, though their taste is probably a part of their 
sense of smell. 


WHY WE COOK FOODS 19 

QUESTIONS 

1. Name two foods that should be cooked and tell why. 

2. Why should we make food taste as well as we can? How 
can we do this? 

3. How are foods that our bodies need sometimes lost in the 
cooking? 

4. What care should be taken in cooking meats? Vegetables? 
Bread? Oatmeal? 

5. Name cooked foods that are easily digested. Some that 
are hard to digest. Some that do not agree with you if eaten too 
often. 

6. Why is it a misfortune for a growing child to be unable to 
drink milk? How should milk be used for such a child? 



Courtesy of U S. Department of Agriculture 

4-H Club Members of Allegheny County, Maryland, 
Their Leaders and Products 



















V. CHOOSING AND CARING FOR FOOD 


Some of us live in the city and buy our food from the 
market. Some of us live on farms and grow many of our 
foods. Some buy milk, and others have cows that furnish 
them with milk. 

Milk and good vegetables are so important to all of us 
that we should take care to have them all the year. 

In some parts of our country people have a disease 
called pellagra. It is not considered a contagious disease. 
It probably comes from doing for a long time without 
certain foods. If people always had milk and fresh vege¬ 
tables, there would likely be no pellagra. Milk and vege¬ 
tables are simple foods, but they are what we need to 
add to the other foods we eat. 

It is important that the milk we have should be good. 
It should be clean and free from disease germs. It should 
come from a dairy that has a permit under law to sell 
dairy products. When it is marked “pasteurized,” that 
means usually that there is no danger of disease being 
spread by it. If our milk comes from our own cows, we 
should be just as careful to have it clean and safe. 

Let us find out what our city laws are regarding the 
production and sale of milk! 1 

1 Write requesting your city or state health department to send you 
a copy of the law or tell you what it is or where you can get it. 


20 


CHOOSING AND CARING FOR FOOD 


21 


We should have fresh vegetables that are wholesome 
and good during the garden season. We should have 
canned, dried, or stored fruit and vegetables at other 
times. 

Boys and girls should help grow gardens when they can. 
This is one way they may help to feed themselves properly. 



Courtesy U. S. Dept, of Agriculture 

Clean Milking 


They should can and dry vegetables that they may have 
them for winter. They should take care that the vege¬ 
tables and milk brought into the house are kept in a cool 
clean place. These simple foods are so important that 
boys and girls should do what they can to have them all 
the year around. 





22 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


Some Important Facts About Milk 

1. Milk has all the different kinds of foods a baby needs 
to grow and keep well. It is a very important food for all 
children. It is a good food for every one. 

2. Good milk is clean milk. A clean cow stable and 



Courtesy U. S. Dept, of Agriculture 

A Milk House 


clean milk utensils are needed to produce clean milk. A 
milkman who is himself clean is necessary too. 

3. Good milk is safe milk. It does not spread disease 
germs. Flies have been kept away. It has not come from 
tuberculous cows. 

4. Pasteurizing milk makes it safe. In pasteuriz¬ 
ing milk it is heated, and this kills disease germs, if any 
have reached the milk. 






CHOOSING AND CARING FOR FOOD 23 

5. Good dishes of food are made from milk — custards, 
soups, ice cream, chocolate pudding, cottage cheese, 
salads. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
American Boys and Girls as Gardeners 

Boys and girls have been gardeners since gardens were made. 
They have always helped to grow vegetables and fruits and to dry 


Children at Work in a School Garden, Pasadena, Cal. 

and can them. More than 600,000 boys and girls living in rural 
counties scattered all over the United States belong to 4-H clubs. 
If you are a farm boy or girl and do not know about these clubs, write 
your State Agricultural College or the U. S. Department of Agricul¬ 
ture for information. Congress has appropriated money in order that 
all young people of the farms may join these clubs and have a leader 
to assist them in gardening, poultry raising, stock raising, dairying, 
canning and drying fruits and vegetables, or in any farm or home 
project a boy or girl wishes to undertake. Members of these clubs 





24 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


are among the best gardeners and fruit producers in the nation. 
They provide good food for themselves, their families, and some¬ 
times their communities. They play and work together. They 
make profits which they use for their own education or other good 

purposes. But no work 
they do is more important 
than gardening, dairying, 
and canning fruits and veg¬ 
etables. 

Boys and girls who are 
not members of clubs grow 
gardens and save the foods. 
In America gardening and 
canning foods are among the 
industries of the children. 
They make money for them¬ 
selves, and they help supply 
the nation’s food. The exercise in gardening makes them grow. 
The foods nourish their bodies. 

Interesting Observations on How Food is Secured 
among Wild Life 

Woodpeckers stick acorns into the holes they have made in tree 
trunks, and later eat them. Squirrels store nuts. The industry 
of ants in providing food for themselves has excited great wonder 
for ages. The honey-bee is known as “the busy little bee,” and 
most of its effort is to make bee-bread and honey. 

Some creatures like the frog sleep during the winter and do 
not eat. 

Most birds select certain foods. Some live chiefly on seeds, buds, 
and berries. Others eat certain worms and insects. The swallow 
secures its food from the insects it finds while in flight and teaches 
its young to do the same thing. The common black crow will eat 
almost anything. 



Fruits Canned By Girls 



CHOOSING AND CARING FOR FOOD 25 

Everywhere the wild life seeks for places where food is plen¬ 
tiful. Even so, the struggle to keep hunger satisfied is usually 
a very hard one. Beasts in captivity generally have a longer life 
than they would have otherwise, because they do not need to 
struggle to secure food, or to escape their enemies. 



This Rat had No Milk This Rat had Milk 

These two rats are the same age and they were the same size when their 
reeding test began. Then they had the same kind and quantity of food except 
that one had milk and the other had none. Photos by courtesy Dairy Division, 
Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What foods should we take care to have all the year? 

2. What is pellagra? What probably causes it? 

3. Name vegetables other than potatoes that grow in a garden. 

4. Which of these may be stored for winter’s use? Which 
should be canned or dried? 

5. Is milk an easy food to produce and keep clean and cool? 
Explain. 

6. What are some regulations of your state that have to do 
with producing clean milk? 

7. What are some regulations for marketing milk? 

8. Read in the Appendix of this book how milk is pasteurized. 

9. Why is care taken to keep the temperature below the boiling 
point in pasteurizing it? 

10. Why is it important for boys and girls to be gardeners? 




VI. EXERCISE FOR GROWING BOYS AND GIRLS 


Our bodies have many muscles. They have several 
hundred of them. These muscles hunger for exercise as 
our stomachs hunger for food. Both the big muscles 
and the little muscles hunger for it. They want to stretch. 
They want to pull. They can do so. They are fastened 
to the bony frame. 

When we walk and climb and leap, the muscles pull and 
stretch. When we swim and throw and bat a ball, our 
muscles pull and stretch. This makes them grow strong 
and big. The more they do the more they want to do. 
They keep growing stronger and bigger. 

When we use our muscles, we exercise our heart and 
lungs as well, for the one must pump more blood and the 
other breathe more air. If we did not exercise them in 
this way, we would soon be so we could not run or even 
walk any distance without being out of breath. We know 
many people who cannot run fifteen yards without panting 
for breath, while others can do cross-country running for 
several miles. 

Thousands of people can use their bodies at work all 
day long, and yet, even when rested, are unable to run 
without being out of breath in two or three minutes. For 
them climbing or swimming or playing ball games is out 
of the question. It is not natural for our bodies to be 
unable to run or play games. If we keep doing these 

26 


EXERCISE FOR GROWING BOYS AND GIRLS 27 


things we shall always be able to do them. Our heart 
and lungs and our whole body will be better. 

Can you balance your body in almost any position? Do 
you use all parts freely? Do you use your trunk and legs 
properly when you walk or run? 

Can you walk a mile in twenty minutes? What are 



An All-the-way-Through Stretch 


your strong points in walking and running? Your weak 
ones? Can you illustrate with your body the rhyme — 

In a free body energy flows 
From finger tips to toes. 

Note what a perfect illustration of it the picture gives. 

We should not have stiff bodies while we are growing 
and they should not be too stiff after we are grown. 

Growing boys and girls should have at least two hours 
of good outdoor exercise every day. This is the way to 
have strong muscles and a good heart and lungs. 






28 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 



Helps for Healthful Exercise 

Do not overexercise. Do not play or tramp in the 
woods when too tired and hungry. 

Remember that you do your body as much good when 
you run as fast as you can as the boy does who can run 
twice as fast. Enjoy what you can do. In the long run 


Wide World Photos 

An Expert Swimmer Making a Dive 

the winner is the one who keeps steadily doing his best. 
This is true, because you do not learn to do things at 
once and because you grow strong gradually. 

There are three classes of boy scouts and three classes 
of girl scouts in order that boys and girls may have time to 
gain strength and to learn to do things before they are 
promoted to the highest class. It takes time for your 
body to grow. It takes time to gain strength. 








EXERCISE FOR GROWING BOYS AND GIRLS 29 


If you are sleepy after your noon lunch, try to take a 
short nap. You will play better and feel better the rest 
of the day. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Interesting Facts about Exercise of Creatures in Nature 

A fox runs naturally twenty-six miles an hour, and he can keep 
it up for several hours. The prong-horned antelope is speedier 
still, and can keep going so long it is almost unbelievable. Its 
speed equals a fast express train. 

Birds make long migrations without rest. The plovers in 
migrating southward to the Bahama Islands from Canada, a dis¬ 
tance of some 2,500 miles, are supposed to remain on the wing and 
make of it a continuous journey. 

Many creatures of the wild have marvelous endurance. Unless 
hunted or otherwise pressed, they do not usually overtax their 
strength in their activities. Some birds are very fatigued after a 
long flight, but how they make the long journeys at all is a puzzle 
that one can think about a long time without being able to explain. 

Very old animals living in captivity keep in condition as long 
as they exercise. When they stop, they frequently grow fat and 
soon die. 

QUESTIONS 

1. About how many minutes a day do you spend in walking, 
running, playing a game, or other such exercise? 

2. If you should lie down all the day except when doing things 
that exercise your whole body, how much exercise of this kind would 
you need? 

3. What does exercise do for our muscles? If we let them 
become used to having little exercise, how have we harmed them? 

4. How do we exercise our heart and lungs? Why is it impor¬ 
tant that we exercise them? 


3 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

5. When people no longer run, or in other ways exercise their 
whole bodies, what is the usual result? 

6. Why does exercise do less for us if we have let our bodies 
become crooked? 

7. What should we expect good daily exercise to do for our 
bodies? 

8 . If our exercise has been good while we are growing, how well 
should we be able to use our bodies? 

9. Why should you not try to make your exercise exactly like 
some one else’s? 


VII. OUR BODY SKELETON: HOW FREELY WE 
CAN MOVE IT 

Our skeleton is on the inside of our bodies. We have 
a backbone or spine. Animals with backbones are called 
vertebrates. We are vertebrates. So are fishes and birds 
and the larger animals. We have more freedom than 
creatures that have shells on the outside of their bodies. 



A Balancing Position 

Muscles grow on the skeleton. The backbone is 
flexible and gives us great freedom of movement. We, 
like most vertebrates, can move from place to place rapidly 
and protect ourselves from danger. We have many powers 
because our skeleton is inside our bodies and made so as 
to allow free motion. 


31 













32 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

We can stand erect. Only a few animals can stand so 
for even a few minutes at a time. We can bend our 
backbones forward, backward, and sideways. 1 Each bone 
of the spine is free from the one below and above it, and 
there are cushion pads of cartilage between each pair. 


Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution 

Skeleton of Dinosaur in the National Museum at 
Washington 

This lets us have motion throughout the whole spine. It 
gives it a springiness which saves us from jolts and jars. 

It is by our backbone that we keep the body balanced. 
It has curves. The upper part of it supports the neck and 
head. The lower part holds the legs vertically from the 
ankles. The shoulder is in the same vertical line. 2 This 

1 See illustrations — Exercises for the Spinal Column — in the Appen¬ 
dix of this book. 

2 See illustration, Lesson X, of this book, page 54. 








OUR BODY SKELETON 


33 


Muscles Showing how Arms, Legs, Head, and Trunk 
are United 








34 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


is the standing balance. When we jump we fold our 
body, but when we land we spring to the standing balance 
again. 

Our spine lets us have united movement of our whole 
body. That is how our whole body jumps and walks and 
leaps. Some people when they walk do not have free 
motion all the way through from head to legs. They 
stop the motion before it goes through the upper spine and 
so do not carry their heads naturally. Or they let the 
legs move as if they were pegged in, and the spine is hardly 
exercised at all. But the wonder of our body frame is in 
the way motion may go all the way through it. We can 
keep our balance and run freely as four-footed animals 
do. The spine is a wonderful part of our body frame. 

We also have freedom in the way the ribs are fastened. 
The trunk mus&es allow free motion too. We can bend 
the trunk about itself as a flower sways around its stem. 
The trunk beiids forward and back and to the sides. Its 
muscles are not stiff by nature. The trunk helps the 
spine to give us free motion. It also helps in making the 
whole body move together. 

Muscles from the legs and arms fasten in the trunk. 
We need never use the arms and legs as pegs. We need 
never walk so that the movement is not united from trunk 
to head and trunk to limbs. When we stretch and try to 
loosen up our bodies, we should stretch the trunk and not 
just the arms and legs. We should keep the trunk 
exercised so it can be moved in many directions. We 
should balance our bodies in many different positions. 


OUR BODY SKELETON 


35 


Our body frame is more wonderful than we know. Let 
us learn to feel this wonder and use our bodies in free 
motion. The sculptor knows its wonder. He shows bal¬ 
ance and unity. We can show this in standing and walk¬ 
ing, and in all the ways we use our bodies. Nature has 
made our bodies so we can keep them free. Let us keep 
them so. 


• SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Interesting Facts about the Movements of Animals 

The larger species of the kangaroo makes twenty feet and some¬ 
times more at a leap. Almost any kangaroo can leap nine feet. 
When going at its best, leap follows leap and only its hind feet 
touch the ground. The fore legs are held close to its chest, and its 
tail is straight back. Its tail helps it to keep its balance. 

The flying squirrel does not really fly; it glides downward. On 
each side of its body, stretching from front legs to hind legs, is a 
fold of skin. When it glides, this stretches out and balances it. 

The bat has perfect flight. Its wings are not like a bird’s. 
There are bones corresponding to those of an upper and lower arm 
and of fingers. These are exceedingly long. Between these is a 
thin, strong membrane. 

Most vertebrate animals have speed. The large sea lion dashes 
rapidly through the water, or loops, turning itself through long 
curves as an airplane may do. Some deer run so swiftly their feet 
can hardly be seen. These and many other vertebrate animals 
protect themselves against enemies by their quickness of movement. 

On page 32 is an illustration of the skeleton of a dinosaur of 
the ornamented kind. This animal could not readily flee or fight or 
search for food. It was a vertebrate animal, but not able to protect 
itself well. It and its kind are now extinct. 


36 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

Some Facts About the Movements of Boys and Girls 

The Boy — Running 

The boy — to make the picture definite — the twelve or thirteen- 
year-old boy — sometimes covers fifteen feet in a second in run¬ 
ning. His body is tall as he runs. It makes a tall line, with one 
leg forward, and then a tall line with the other leg forward. The 
stride is as long as it can be and let the body keep erect and in good 
balance. Just the moment the body is balanced with one leg 
forward, the other leg springs forward and the same thing happens 
again. The legs and arms move straight forward and back, and the 
head is up, in line with the rest of the body. He uses his whole 
body and runs as perfectly as animals do. 

Sometimes the boy is not quite ready to run. He then makes 
ready. He takes a good position, stamps the ground rapidly and 
lets his arms feel free. Then he is off, and after a few yards he is 
going as fast as his legs can carry him. No animal can keep its 
body in a vertical position and balance itself at high speed running 
as a boy can. 

The Girl — Throwing 

The girl — to make the picture definite, the twelve or thirteen- 
year-old girl — can throw a basket ball forty or more feet. In 
preparing to throw it, she takes a position that she could not take 
if it were not possible to balance her body in different ways or to 
bend her trunk freely. The right leg is forward, foot pointing for¬ 
ward; but the left leg with foot turned outward to the side and 
knee bent in the same direction supports the weight. The trunk 
is turned to the side, and bends so that it is easy for the ball to 
be held in the curving forearm. Thus the girl stands. She is 
looking toward the goal, and her other arm is stretched in an 
outward and upward direction. This helps her to keep her bal¬ 
ance. Then with a flash she swings round, her weight is held 
over the toe of the left foot, and as she swings she slings the ball 


OUR BODY SKELETON 


3? 




upward and on. Immediately she rests her weight on the whole 
left foot with the left knee bent. One arm is stretched in the 
direction in which the ball went. 

The girl uses her whole body in making the throw as perfectly 
as the squirrel uses his body in jumping from limb to limb. 


The Girl — Sitting 

The girl sitting may be any girl. She sits in a chair. Her feet 
rest easily on the floor. Her long back rests against the back of 
the chair. Her trunk and head are in line just as when she is 
standing. They let her feel tall in the same way. Some one 
enters the room, and then she stands easily. She does not awk¬ 
wardly get up, one part of her body moving and then another, but 
she just stands. Then she sits easily in the same way. A book 
has fallen to the floor at her side. She does not move her feet or 
bend forward, or use both arms to pick it up. But she reaches one 
arm down, bending the side trunk and head with it. 


First Position 


After the Throw 


Putting the Ball 




38 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

the book and returns to position. She reads the book sitting as 
perfectly as the bird sits on the limb of a tree. 

The Boy — Jumping 

The boy — to make the image of him definite —• is between 50 
and 54 inches tall and weighs between 70 and 85 pounds. He can 
jump four and a half to five feet. 

Before he jumps he stands on edge of the jumping pit, his feet 
wide apart. He stretches his body tall and his arms come up too. 
His arms sweep down and back, at the same time his body leans 
forward, knees slightly bent. Knees then quickly straighten, 
body still leaning forward, and just at the moment that it seems he 
cannot keep his balance any longer, he springs. To make the 
jump high, he straightens his legs backward and immediately flings 
his heels upward. Then he brings his legs forward and his arms 
forward, and lands with his knees bent, his arms reaching forward, 
his trunk nearly vertical. Like the kangaroo, his whole body 
jumps, and yet he keeps his balance. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why can we stand erect and still place our bodies in so many 
different positions? 

2. Why should we in walking use our whole body and make 
a united movement? 

3. What mistake do we often make because our arms and legs 
are so free? 

4. Why do animals move in one free bound or leap so much 
better than we do? Is this difference natural or should we too 
leap and run, using our bodies as animals use theirs? 

5. Can we have free bodies if our trunks are stiff and unable 
to bend in one direction and another? Show one thing you can do 
because your trunk is not stiff. 

6. Make use of games and exercises given in the Appendix of 
this book. 


VIII. OUR EYES AND THEIR CARE 



Muscles oe the Eye 


The eye is a busy little machine and at the same time a 
window. An eye does not look like a window, but as we 
see things it seems like one to us. Just inside the part we 
see is a clear curved structure that is like a window. It 
is the lens. It corresponds 
to the lens of a camera. It 
is because this lens is all the 
time changing its shape that 
our eyes are so busy. It 
sometimes flattens or bulges 
out more than nine hundred 
times a minute. Small eye 
muscles control it. Larger 
pairs of muscles let our eyeballs move just so far to the 
right or left or up or down. 

When our eyes are perfect, with no parts out of repair, 
they do their work easily. When the eyeball is too long 
from front to back, the lens and its muscles are over¬ 
worked in trying to bulge enough to make on the back 
of the eye a clear image of a far-away object. Again, an 
eyeball may be too short from front to back, and then the 
lens tries to flatten so there will be a clear image. There 
is also strain if the lens itself is not well-shaped. When 
anything is wrong with the parts of the eye, the eye- 
machine has too much to do. 


39 



40 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


We do not always know when the parts of our eyes are 
wrongly made. We do not even know many times when 
we do not see well. Our vision may be a third less than 
it should be without our knowing it. But we can find 
how well we see by having our eyes tested. We can have 
this done at school, if there is an eye test chart and a light 
room to take the test in. 

It is very important that we find how well we see; if 
we do not see well, we should correct the fault, if that is 
possible. We can enjoy ourselves better and do things 
more easily if we see well, also our eyes last longer. It 
injures them to try to use them when something is 
wrong. We may need glasses. We can not usually tell 
whether we do or not until an eye doctor examines them. 
He finds why we cannot see as we should. Our teacher 
can not find this out in giving us the eye test. She only 
finds how well we see. Some of us frequently have head¬ 
aches, and our eyes pain us. Then we should see an eye 
doctor, whether we have taken the eye test or not. 

We should rest our eyes. All the time we are using 
them little nerves that run all through a covering over 
the hidden part of our eye balls are carrying messages of 
the light to the big optic nerve at the back. This in turn 
carries the messages to the brain. These nerves tire. If 
the light is too bright or if it is shadowy and uneven, or 
too dim, the nerves and all parts of the eye tire more 
easily. This finally harms the eye. Our eyes should have 
good light to work in and we should rest them. 

To have good daylight, windows should in most rooms 


OUR EYES AND THEIR CARE 


4i 


be on one side, high toward the ceiling, and without shades, 
except white ones to use against direct sunlight. There 
should be window space equal to about one fourth of the 
floor space. The upper 
walls and ceiling of the 
room should be a light 
color to throw the light 
out into the room. We 
take care of our eyes 
when we use them in a 
properly lighted room. 

Our eyes may be 
harmed by contagious 
diseases. We should 
use no public towels, or 
get germs in them from 

our hands. We should _ 

Diagram of the Eyeball 

use a fresh clean cloth 

, 1. Yellow spot. 2. Blind spot. 3. Retina, 

to Wash them. 4. Choroid coat. 5. Sclerotic coat. 6. Crys- 



We should avoid ac¬ 
cidents by being care¬ 
ful how we use sharp 
tools. We should learn 
how to remove a cin- 


talline lens. 7. Suspensory ligament. 8. Cil¬ 
iary processes and ciliary muscle. 9. Iris con¬ 
taining the pupil. 10. Cornea, n. Lymph 
duct. 12. Conjunctiva. 13. Inferior and 
superior recti muscles. 14. Optic nerve. 
15. Elevator muscle of eyelid. 


der. Good eyes are worth much to us. They make 
us glad to live. They let us use our strong bodies. 
They give them good windows. We want our bodies to 
have good windows. We want to see well for many, 


many years. 


42 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Interesting Facts about the Eyes of Creatures in Nature 

Insects have simple or compound eyes or both. The honey-bee 
and the housefly have both. There are usually three simple eyes 
arranged like a triangle near the top of the head of insects that have 
simple eyes. The compound eyes are paired and are on the sides 
or top of the head. The compound eye is made of tiny window¬ 
like surfaces. Sometimes there are several thousands of these in 
one eye. Behind each are a lens, coloring matter, and a special 
nerve. The lens cannot flatten or bulge. The range of vision of 
the honey-bee is probably two or three yards. 

An insect probably sees little of the shape of anything, but it 
can detect motion better than many of the higher animals can. 

Both a snail and the common crab have their eyes set on stalks 
extending out from their bodies. 

The tadpole has two rings on its skin where eyes will appear. 
As it grows into a frog the skin covering disappears. The full 
grown frog has eyelids. 

There is a gelatin-like mass around the eyeballs of fishes. Fish 
have no tear glands. The water they live in keeps sand and par¬ 
ticles washed away. 

Birds have a third eyelid. It is hidden in the front corner of the 
eye and will draw over the eye like a close-fitting shade. 

Many of nature’s creatures have very large eyes in proportion 
to the size of their heads. 

Owls see well at night. So do some other animals. 

A deer may look toward a man standing in plain view apparently 
without seeing him, but if there is a slight motion, it sees that. 

Some animals have very beautiful eyes. The antelope is one of 
these. Its eyes glisten at night. The head keeper of a zoo now 
and then goes through the park at night holding a flashlight from 
the top of his head that he may see the animals’ eyes. Some ap¬ 
pear white and others glisten in many colors. 


OUR EYES AND THEIR CARE 


43 


Why Thirteen Musicians Wear Glasses 

In a certain orchestra are thirteen musicians and every one wears 
glasses. It always brings a smile from the audience when they first 
appear on the stage. “But who would like to read from sheet 
music afternoon and evening several times a week and not protect 
his eyes?” said one of the musicians when asked why they wore 
them. They see without glasses as well as many other people do. 
But they are not going to run any risks, and they wear just the 
kind they need. They want to play music and still be able to see 
well for years to come. 

The Right Eye-glasses 

It is a strange fact that many people cannot see well, and yet 
they do not know it. In one sense this is not strange, for if one has 
never seen well or has become used to poor vision, how can he 
know it? 

Most people do not know when they have the proper eye 
glasses. They think that those that let them see as they have 
been seeing are best. Only a good eye doctor or a good oculist 
who can examine the eyes and tell what is wrong knows what 
glasses are the right ones. 

How the Railroad Station at the Nation’s Capital is 
Lighted at Night 

The railroad station at the Nation’s Capital has a large waiting- 
room. At night this room is lighted so well that one can read 
anywhere in it in comfort. Yet there is not a light to be seen. 
A balcony runs entirely around it. From this balcony one can look 
down into the waiting-room and also up to the high ceiling and 
upper walls. Along the sides of this balcony is a trough made of 
the same white stone as the rest of the room and running all the 
way around. In this trough is a row of electric lights. At night 
these light the high walls and ceiling, which throw the light back 
into the room, making it evenly lighted throughout. But no 
electric light can be seen. 


44 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

Color Tints of Walls and Ceiling 

The out-of-door daylight around us is not direct sunlight. It 
is sunlight that has been softened by the earth and the objects on 
the earth. If the earth were white and the objects upon it were all 
white, it would give us so much sunlight that we would not be able 
to see. The brown earth and the green upon it soften the sunlight 
for us. Indoors the walls and ceiling of a room change the daylight 
just as the earth and outdoor objects change it. But indoors we 
usually need more light rather than less. This is why the ceiling 
of a room should usually be white or very light. Then it throws 
the light that strikes it back into the room. Walls of soft tints of 
yellows, grays, and greens soften the light. Yellow tints are often 
best for north rooms. When the sunlight is bright outside a room, 
the tints of the walls inside should be a little darker. When there 
are shade trees that keep part of the sunlight away, the tints should 
be lighter. 


The Lighting of a Classroom 

On the opposite page is a drawing showing a floor plan of a 
classroom and how windows are arranged for lighting. The plan 
is made by Dr. Fletcher B. Dresslar, who has prepared govern¬ 
ment bulletins on school buildings and their construction. He 
has given many years to the study of the school house. 

The long way of this classroom is east and west. It is for a loca¬ 
tion in the southern states. The windows are on one side only — 
the east. The room is bathed in sunlight in the early morning, 
and after ten o’clock there is no need for window shades for the 
rest of the day. 

The windows are four feet above the floor and therefore above 
the level of the children’s eyes as they sit at their work. It is very 
bad for windows to be below this level. 

The windows make one fifth of the floor space. They are ar¬ 
ranged so that a wide space is left toward the front without win- 


OUR EYES AND THEIR CARE 45 

dows. This keeps the children in the rear of the room from having 
too much light in front of them. 

The windows reach to within six inches of the ceiling. It is 
good to have light from as high up in the room as possible. 

Naturally the windows are placed the long way of the room. 



W '/7</o yv$ <3 Vv tc/e 3' /oncj 'o&o //cor 

/ju///ons /' 

Plan of a Classroom Showing Proper Window Space 


There can not only be more of them, but the light does not have to 
travel so far. It makes a difference how the room is placed — 
whether the long sides are to east and west or to the north and 
south. The room has better sun when the long side having the 
windows is on the east or west. 

Breeze windows are placed high up on the wall opposite the 
light windows. There are two doors opening into the hallway 
which may be opened for ventilation also. 













46 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


Dr. Dresslar would not tell you how to place windows in your 
school building, until he knew many facts about it. How does it 
face? In what latitude is it? Is it in a level, open country, or 
among hills, or among other buildings in a city? But in any 
classroom it is not good to have cross-lighting. It is well to have 
the windows reach well toward the ceiling. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How may we find out if our sight is not good? 

2. What do eye lenses do? 

3. What kind of light is bad for the eyes? What harm does 
it do? What kind of light is good? 

4. How are the windows placed for proper lighting of a room? 

5. Why are the tints of walls and ceiling important? 

6. Is your school room well lighted? Explain. Is your seat 
properly placed? 

7. How do we save our eyes from contagious diseases? If a 
contagious eye disease breaks out in your school, what care is 
taken to prevent its spread? 

8. Why do the thirteen musicians of a certain orchestra wear 
glasses? 

9. Why can people be easily fooled in being fitted with glasses? 
Why should the doctor who examines the eyes fit them with 
glasses? 

10. Why are lights placed under or covered by bowls or lamp 
shades? 

11. When a light is placed in a bowl that hangs from the ceiling, 
how is the room lighted by it? 

12. Why would it be less pleasant if the bright electric lights 
in the large waiting-room of the railroad station at the National 
Capital were in full view? 


IX. WE CAN HAVE SOUND TEETH 


Our eyes are like machines with many little parts. 
But our teeth have only a few parts. If our teeth are 
sound and strong, we can use them all our lives without 
breaking them unless we crack nuts or bite something 
that is hard with them. 

But many of us do have broken teeth. The reason is 
that we let them become unsound. We let holes come 
into them. Then they break. 

If we let many holes come in them, our teeth break to 
pieces before we have lived half our lives. Besides, they 
ache and hurt. 

Of course we do not want teeth that ache and hurt the 
first half of our lives and then have no teeth at all after 
that. But this is what often happens when they have 
holes in them. 

Holes come in our teeth because we leave little pieces of 
food in them to sour and spoil. The germs in these 
spoiled foods make holes. 

We can help keep our teeth sound. We should clean 
our teeth and have a dentist fill any holes that come in 
them. 

We should have a dentist fill a hole while it is small. 
Then we do not have toothache. Then we are not 
likely to have diseased teeth. Within six months a hole 
can come in a tooth and get large enough to hold a filling. 

47 


48 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 



TEMPORARY SET 


Upper 


TIME OF APPEARANCE 
Month 


KINDS OF TEETH 

Incisors 

Canine 


Molars 



Year 


Molars 


Incisors 

Canine 

Bicuspids 


Upper 



Lower 


PERMANENT SET 


Teeth: Kinds, Arrangement, and Time oe Appearance 


It is necessary to have our teeth examined often to see if 
any tiny holes have come. 

When we brush our teeth carefully with a good tooth 
brush, we remove the little pieces of food. If they are 
crowded together we can not get all the food away with a 
brush. 


















WE CAN HAVE SOUND TEETH 


49 


When we clean them carefully and rinse our mouth we 
not only save our teeth but we have a clean mouth. Of 
course, we all like to have teeth and tongue and gums 
fresh and clean and healthy. We can have them so if we 
clean them well and rinse our mouths in clean warm water. 

We may have teeth that are soft and not well formed; 
then we need all the more to care for them. If we have 
healthy teeth, our whole bodies are healthier. We can 
chew our foods better. Our teeth will not cause other 
parts of our bodies to become diseased. We do not want 
to live half our lives without good teeth. We can 
usually keep our teeth if we take care of them. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Dental Clinics 

In Buffalo, New York, it is required that all new school build¬ 
ings have a room for a dental clinic. In many places in the United 
States dental clinics for school children are located either in the 
schools or near them. 

At the dental clinics for school children nurses usually examine 
the teeth and make drawings to show where fillings are needed. 
These drawings are given to the child to show his parents. At 
certain times the dentist of the clinic comes to fill the holes in the 
teeth. When a nurse examines a child’s teeth, she not only finds 
the holes if any are there, but she advises the child about the best 
way to care for his teeth and mouth. 

Good dental clinics aim to help children keep their teeth sound 
and their mouths clean and healthy. A child who has the use of 
a good dental clinic when he is growing up need have no big dental 
bills to pay later, nor should he have badly broken teeth. 


50 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


Discovery Made through a Dental Clinic 

The following story (true story) is from New York State: 1 

In one of the schools of our state there came under my obser¬ 
vation a boy 12 years old whose baby teeth were still in position 
in his mouth. Usually at this age all of these deciduous, or tem¬ 
porary teeth, have been lost, being replaced by the larger perma¬ 
nent set. In this boy only the two upper front teeth (central 
incisors) had appeared. His jaws had not properly developed nor 
the baby teeth separated to make room for the wider, permanent 
ones. Radiographs were made of both upper and lower jaws, and 
to my great disappointment not another sign of a permanent tooth 
appeared. This meant that he must go through life with only his 
baby teeth, as he will never have the permanent set. Fortunately 
these teeth were of good structure and had withstood decay very 
well, although some cavities had recently developed. Of course, 
cavities in the baby teeth should always be filled, but see how much 
more necessary it was to do so for this boy, and for him to con¬ 
stantly watch them and give them the best of care. Both the boy 
and his parents were very grateful to the school dentist for observ¬ 
ing the defect and warning them of its possible consequences. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why do so many people have broken teeth? 

2. What finally happens if nothing is done to rid our teeth 
from holes? 

3. How do these holes come in the teeth? 

4. How may we have sound teeth? 

5. Why is it necessary to have a dentist examine them now 
and then? 

1 Dr. Stanleigh R. Meaker, Inspector of Mouth Hygiene for the 
Public Schools of New York State, wrote the story just as it is given 
here. 


WE CAN HAVE SOUND TEETH 


5i 


6. Do sound good teeth let us have better digestion? Give two 
reasons why. 

7. How may poison from diseased teeth reach other parts of 
the body? 

8. What is the proper way to care for the teeth? 

9. What care should be taken in brushing the teeth? In 
keeping the brush clean? 

10. Do you have the habit of cleaning your teeth twice a day? 
What is the reward for such a habit? 

11. What do school children gain by having the service of 
good dental clinics? 

12. When there are no dental clinics what other service should 
you seek? 

13. Why is money saved by going to a dentist to have the teeth 
examined twice a year? 

14. What unusual case was discovered in a dental clinic? 



Courtesy of 4-H Clubs, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
Good Health Makes for Good Posture 
52 





X. THE RIGHT WAY TO STAND 

In Lessons VI and VII we learned how the skeleton 
and muscles of the human body are made to hold the 
body erect and still allow many kinds of movements. 
We have gone far enough in our health study to know 
that a straight body allows more freedom than a crooked 
body does. Also we must have discovered that our bodies 
are made to stand erect in a certain way. When we stand 
erect in just that certain way, we can walk and run and 
leap as easily as wild animals do. It is this that gives good 
balance and it is good balance that lets us stand erect. 

When a baby is just learning to stand and walk, it 
must be ever so careful or it will lose its balance and fall. 
It might be a good thing if this condition remained all the 
time we are growing. Then we would not let our bones 
and muscles grow wrong. 

But there is sometimes a real excuse for letting the 
body be stooped and crooked. Trunk muscles have to 
grow stronger all the time so they can hold our growing 
bodies erect. If for any reason they do not have this 
strength, we may not have erect bodies until the strength 
is gained. We should not forget this fact if our bodies 
are stooped. Under such a circumstance our first effort 
should be to make the muscles of the trunk strong. We 
should hold our bodies straight for a little while at a 
time. This exercises the trunk muscles and helps them to 
53 


54 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


become so. After a time we can keep our bodies straight 
all the while. By this practice we make them straight. 

There are several ways of finding out whether we stand 
straight. The best way is the one we usually learn last 
that is by how we feel. When we stand straight we feel 



Incorrect 

Posture 



Correct 

Posture 


Exaggerated 

Posture 



tall, as if the tops of our heads were held by a string. 
Our bodies do not feel stiff but ready to walk or run easily. 

We can find if we are standing straight by trying to 
balance. When we are in good balance we should be 
able to stand on one foot and raise the other knee without 
falling over. Notice in the picture on page 55 that the 
girl holds her body easily on one foot while she folds her 






THE RIGHT WAY TO STAND 55 

trunk over the raised knee. If her body is quite poised, 
she can straighten her trunk very slowly and still not 
fall. We should try to do this until we have the feeling 
of good body poise. 


Jack Knife Fold — Forward Jack Knife Fold — Back 

A straight body is a flat body — that is, no part sticks out 
either in the front or back. The head is held high, the chin in, 
the legs make a vertical line from the ankles and the weight 
of the body is balanced over the balls of the feet. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Interesting Observations about how Birds and Other 
Animals Balance Themselves 

When a bird flies it does not turn over forwards or sidewise. 
The way it holds its tail, wings, and head all help it to keep it in 
proper balance. 






56 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

The giraffe must move its long neck backwards and forwards to 
keep its balance when running. It does not balance itself easily. 

There are misshapen, crooked bodies among the wild beasts, 
but these animals are killed off faster than the others. Those we 
see most have their bodies well exercised and keep the best kind 
of position. 

Generally speaking, standing on all fours is much easier than 
the erect posture of man. 


QUESTIONS 

1. What does “standing straight” mean to you? 

2. What are three ways of telling how we stand? 

3. What do you see players do in playing games that requires 
good balance? 

4. If one has good poise he should be able to keep his balance in 
many positions. (Compare your own balancing with the illus¬ 
trations in the Appendix of this book.) 

5. Why can one not straighten his body at once and keep it 

so? 

6. Describe the body when standing tall and straight. 

7. Name some causes that lead to stooped or crooked bodies? 
How may food, rest, and sleep be causes? 

8. How may exercise help us to have straight bodies? 

A list of causes leading to crooked bodies. Mark those you have 
experienced or observed: 

Carelessness 

Carrying books on one hip 

Walking in bad position with hands in the pockets 
Wearing clothes that press on shoulder muscles 
Wearing clothes that are too tight 
Carrying heavy loads 
Fatigue 


THE RIGHT WAY TO STAND 


57 


Lack of physical strength 
Exercising in bad posture 
Not exercising the trunk muscles enough 

Some of the good that straight free bodies bring. Again mark what 
means most to you. 

Better appearance 

Better feeling 

A free feeling 

Better sense of a fine body 

Plenty of room for lungs and other body organs 



A Self-Discovered Position 

Note the straight back, particularly at the waist line 



XI. SETTING-UP EXERCISES 

Setting-up exercises for boy and girl scouts are an impor¬ 
tant part of their drill. Soldiers and cadets in military 
schools have different ones from the scouts. 

The scouts set-up their bodies before they start on a 
hike. The soldier takes strenuous setting-up drills and 
tires his body. The military cadet drills to gain the mili¬ 
tary bearing. The person giving fifteen minutes night 
and morning to bed-room exercising is making up for the 
outdoor walks and games that he does not have. 

There are as many ways of taking setting-up exercises 
as there are different needs for them. Nearly everybody, 
no matter what he does or how much exercise he has, 
should take time to set-up his body a few times during the 
day. This helps to keep the body carriage natural. 

Everybody should hunt for the muscles he does not use 
enough and exercise them. He should hunt for muscles 
that are exercised too much in one direction and pull and 
stretch them in other directions. The shoveler should 
bend his trunk backward and pull and stretch it. One 
who sits working over a desk should exercise the neck 
muscles, so as to bring the head up and the chin in. It 
is good to stretch as animals do after they have been 
still for a while. 

Any exercise that brings the body to good carriage and 
makes trunk and legs and trunk and arms work together 

58 


SETTING-UP EXERCISES 


59 


is good. We can not live in houses and sit long hours in 
school rooms and keep our bodies in good form without 
giving special attention to them. If you need only to 
stretch and squirm, do that; if you need to correct 
stooped posture, put your effort there and work patiently. 




Neck Firm Trunk Forward Bend 

Setting-up exercises that do not make the body tired , but 
make it ready , are best for growing boys and girls. In two 
minutes or less in a good drill all the muscles can be 
exercised several times. When such a drill is properly 
taken the body is set-up — bone and muscle held in proper 
position — and ready for outdoor play. 














6 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


In the setting-up drill we should twist and squirm to 
relax the body. When we lift or bend or move one part 
every other part should be held firm, either supporting or 
allowing the moved part to pull against it. For example, 
when we hold our hands on the hips and bend the trunk 
to the side, the rest of the body should be firm, allowing 
the pull to be made. This stretches the side muscles of 
the trunk. We must really stretch and pull as we do in 
play before it does us good. 

There are other kinds of special exercises. One of 
these is the rhythmic. They are not taken in two minutes 
or given under the commands of a leader. The girls 
whose photographs are included in the Appendix of 
this book took such exercises. They follow natural 
body motion and are quite free. Setting-up exercises 
should be natural, and they may be rhythmic too. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
Animals Give Signals 

The lynx was hunting prey. He had let a rabbit and a chip¬ 
munk escape already. He found the otter’s track and followed it. 
He reached the creek and hid himself behind a spruce bush. He 
saw a whole tribe of otters coasting down a snow-slide made by 
the parent otter. He went a long distance around and reached the 
top of the bank. He was ready to spring. At that moment the 
parent otter heard the snow crack and saw a spruce bough move. 
She gave a short sharp cry. The otters did not wait to look. 
They ran madly. They were well out of sight before the lynx 
could spring. —-From Fur, Feather and Fin, Ernest Seton Thomp¬ 
son (W. A. Wilde Co., Boston). 


SETTING-UP EXERCISES 61 

The Command “Attention!” 

In drills given under command, “Attention!” 
take position and be ready. The usual way is 
to bring feet together, arms at sides, and stand 
tall. A well-drilled troop can do this instantly. 

But a group not so used to it may make all 
kinds of blunders. Some are slow. Some are 
quick enough, but their bodies are too stiff. 

The trouble comes from not being natural, and 
such a beginning starts the whole two-minute 
drill wrong. 

How differently one takes this command 
under other circumstances. Out in the woods 
among wild life, let a companion give a signal 
and in an instant one is alert, listening, ready to 
move. He comes to attention naturally. In 
the setting-up drills it should be natural too. 

Learning to obey the signal “Attention!” 
properly will make the whole drill snappier and 
better. 

Observations about how Animals Keep Themselves in 
Condition 

Wild animals have to be active and be ever on the alert in order 
to live. This keeps them in condition. 

Keepers of animals in a zoological park notice the new beasts 
brought from the wild state to see if they exercise well. If so, 
they are likely to do well in captivity. The walking back and forth 
in the stalls of lions, bears, and other such animals in captivity, is 
satisfying exercise to them. This keeps all the large muscles in 
good use. 

The horse lies down and rolls from side to side several times, 
bending and throwing the legs. He gets up and shakes himself. 


means that all 



Attention ! 




62 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


This serves as setting-up exercises for him. The cat often takes a 
big stretch that reaches every part of its body after it has been 
lying down. The dog stretches and stretches first one part of his 
body and then another after he has been resting. It puts his 
body in readiness for whatever he may want to do. 

Man too has a natural way of stretching and pulling himself 
together. This is the best kind of setting-up drill. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Did you ever take a snappy, two-minute setting-up drill? 

2. For growing boys and girls what is the purpose of such 
drills? 

3. How do they train one in good balance? 

4. Why is it easier to make movements when music is played? 

5. After you have taken a good setting-up drill several times 
see if you can explain from your own experience the right and the 
wrong way to take them. 

6. Observe a group taking such exercises and see who takes 
them easily and correctly. 

7. How may plenty of free outdoor exercise make these drills 
unnecessary? 

8. Tell of instances on the street or elsewhere when you nat¬ 
urally obeyed a signal meaning the same thing as the command, 
“Attention!” in the setting-up drill. 


XII. HOW OUR TEETH GROW 

We have two sets of teeth. If the first set is good the 
second set has a much better chance to be good also. 
Neither our first nor our second teeth are good unless we 
exercise them. We exercise them by chewing or gnawing 
such foods as toast, apples, lettuce, and meat. This 
exercise causes the blood to circulate around the roots of 
our teeth. In this way our teeth and our jaw bones get 
plenty of nourishment. 

If our teeth grow as they should, the two rows fit to¬ 
gether and our mouth closes easily. But now and then 
teeth project, causing a misshaped mouth and sometimes 
an open one. 

Usually when our teeth do not fit together well, it is 
because our jaw bones have grown wrong. Swollen tonsils 
or adenoid growths in our throats may make them grow 
unevenly. The loss of the six-year molars causes uneven¬ 
ness too. These are the first teeth of the second set. 
When they are lost the gums shrink and the jaw bones 
do not develop as they should. 

We should save the six-year molars. When our teeth 
do not fit together well and do not let us close our mouth 3 
we should have them straightened. If we do not, we may 
become a mouth breather. 

We should make our first set of teeth as good as we can. 

63 


64 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

The care we take may make the difference between the 
second set having even teeth, or ill-matched ones. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

A Dentist Tells how a Tooth Grows 1 

A tooth and a rose grow in just the opposite ways. The rose 
is first a firm, closely-packed bud. As the bud grows the lavers 


Longitudinal Section 


Side View 


Face View 



Parts of Tooth (Incisor) 


keep spreading apart. When all the parts spread, the rose blooms. 
A tooth grows by thin layers folding together. At first the layers 
are soft and tender. As the tooth grows they pack together. 
When the tooth is perfectly formed, the parts are folded so solidly 
that there are no leaks for acids to seep inside it. 

As the rose gets its food from the sap of the rose bush, so a tooth 
gets its food from the blood which flows to it. The blood carries 

1 The facts stated here were given to the author by Dr. W. B. Hoofnagle, 
a dental surgeon, also a member of the medical staff of Georgetown 
University, Washington, D. C. This dentist wants boys and girls to 
care for their teeth, and not allow bad conditions to develop. 





















HOW OUR TEETH GROW 65 

to the tooth various substances, such as lime, salts, and other 
elements. 

The crown of a tooth forms before it appears out of the gum. 
While the crown of a tooth of a second set is forming, the roots of 
the baby tooth below it melt away. The crown of a tooth comes 
through the gum before its root is fully formed. 

When a tooth is not perfectly formed, it means that at some 
time its growth was interfered with. Perhaps the jaw bones 
were not exercised enough or the food did not have enough tooth- 
substance in it. When a tooth by reason of decay loses its nerve, it 
stops growing. 

Interesting Facts about the Teeth of Animals 

The beaver and the rat belong to the family of gnawers. It is 
not food alone they bite, but material of various kinds. Their 
teeth suit their habits in this regard. The front teeth are chisel¬ 
shaped at the ends. Most of the enamel is on the front part of the 
tooth, and is formed in horizontal layers. These teeth wear away, 
but they grow out again. They keep growing just as our finger 
nails do. The squirrel’s teeth keep growing too. A lady had two 
squirrels; one let her make a pet of it, the other would not. She 
cracked the nuts for the pet squirrel and gave it the kernels. Its 
teeth grew so long they came through the front of its mouth. The 
other cracked its own nuts and its teeth were kept worn down. 
For a wide space on each side of their sharp front teeth there are 
no teeth at all. Away back in the jaws there are a few grinders. 

A baby seal loses its baby teeth just after birth. 

Only one baby tooth appears in the kangaroo’s mouth. This 
is in the back part of the jaw. The others are growing beneath 
the gums, but the second set of teeth replaces them before they 
are ready to appear. 

When the whale loses its baby teeth there appears no second 
set. Instead, large horny plates called “whale bones” take the 


66 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

place of teeth. These serve the whale better than teeth could 
in securing and eating the kind of food that he needs. 

The teeth of animals have changed during the ages to suit the 
needs that animals have for them. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How are teeth exercised? Why does exercise make the 
teeth and jawbones grow? 

2. What causes jawbones to grow wrong? How is this harmful? 

3. Why should teeth, that force the mouth open, be 
straightened? 

4. What have we to do with making our teeth even? 

5. What are the parts of a tooth? 

6. What causes leaks in teeth? 



Courtesy of Dr. A. E. McDonald, 
Washington, D. C. 


AT ij YEARS OF AGE THE PERMA¬ 
NENT TEETH ARE FORMING BE¬ 
HIND THE BABY TEETH. 

Note in the photograph, lower jaw at 
the left, the six-year molar forming be¬ 
neath the gums. 




XIII. HOW WE PLAY 

We can tell how strong we are by what we can do. If we 
always do easy things, we may think we have good strong 
bodies when we do not have. If we quit playing a game 
when it begins to be a little hard for us, we are helping 


Basket Ball is a Good Game 

our bodies to be weak. We do not want to do that. It 
sometimes takes pluck and courage to stay through a hard 
fought game. We are proud of ourselves when we do it. 
We are ashamed to be a “ quitter.” 

But if our bodies are not sound, it is foolish of us to 
play just as if they were. If we can not see well, we 
should not try to play ball games until our vision is cor- 
67 








68 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


rected. We should not try to play harder than our 
strength will let us. We should not try to do too much 
if our bodies are weak. 

When we play a new game, we should take time to 
learn it. We should learn its rules, and then obey them. 
We should learn how to play with others in a team game. 
We should learn just how to do things in a game. There 
is a trick in jumping and in throwing, for the way we do 
these things has a great deal to do with the results. The 
strongest boy is not always the best jumper, or the most 
accurate one at throwing. 

How good it is to play! We are like the free creatures 
of air, water, and forest when we play. Our bodies can 
do things that seem impossible at other times. We 
control them even though we are moving rapidly. Our 
whole body machines are active. The blood runs fast. 
Our hearts beat fast. We must breathe fast to get air. 
Our faces glow and eyes sparkle. 

We should play games that we like, though we should 
sometimes play games others like too. In the Appendix 
of this book different games and contests are described. 
In some of these you are told what record you may expect 
to make. The games are of every variety, and the boys 
and girls who learn to play them and have good fun doing 
it are going to be winners some day not only in play but in 
other things too. 


HOW WE PLAY 


69 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Hurdle Races 

In a hurdle race one runs, jumps a hurdle, runs again, jumps 
another hurdle, and so, until the goal is reached. The hurdle is 
a bar placed horizontally a distance above the ground. The bar 
is placed high for athletes, but not so high for children. The 



© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Hurdles at the Finish 


athlete in the contests of the Olympic Games runs a hurdle race 
120 yards long, jumping several hurdles three and a half feet high. 

Forest Smithson, an American, made the world record for 
this race. So skillful was he in making the jumps that he could 
get the foot of the forward leg to the ground while the other was 
still level with the top of the hurdle. In this way he was ready to 
run almost before he had finished the jump. This gained for him 



70 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


a few seconds of time which are important to save when trying to 
win a world championship. His skill in hurdling illustrates how 
learning the trick or the way of doing a thing helps in playing 
games. 

Great Swimmers 

Swimming is a sport enjoyed by both children and adults. Of 
course the best way to enjoy swimming is to go into the water for 
a half or three-quarters of an hour every day during the warm 
months. Some people, however, who are very good swimmers and 
wish to be leaders in this sport, swim for very long distances and 
often in water having strong currents. Recently a woman swimmer 
swam continuously for nearly 57 hours. Of course an ordinary 
swimmer does well to swim for two hours, and this is too long for 
any but trained swimmers and highly healthy individuals. The 
expert swimmers have gradually become used to this form of exer¬ 
cise and are prepared to take risks without harm to themselves. 
It is surprising what such training will do. Some of the unusual 
swimming records of today are the following: 

A boy six years old swam the Delaware River — 2 miles in 45 
minutes. He had learned to swim when 3 years old and had prac¬ 
ticed three years getting ready for this feat. 

Gertrude Ederle, of Brooklyn, New York, swam the English 
Channel, from the coast of England to the coast of France, making 31 
miles in 14 hours and 31 minutes. This tock 8 hours from the record 
made fifty years before by a man swimmer and 2 hours from the 
shortest record made by any swimmer of the Channel up to that 
time. Since Miss Ederle’s record, a swimmer has cut the time to 
10 hours and 45 minutes. Because of the strong currents, the 
English Channel is difficult to swim and it is an outstanding 
accomplishment to have succeeded in swimming it. When Miss 
Ederle was seventeen years old, she swam 21 miles in the Hudson 
River in a little more than 7 hours. 

George Young, a youth also seventeen years old, set out with 103 


HOW WE PLAY 


7 i 


contestants to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast 
near San Pedro. He won the race, making 22 miles in 10 hours and 
47 minutes. 

Interesting Observations of Play among Creatures of Nature 

Many creatures of nature show periods of gladness that are not 
like their usual temper. Young horses, sheep, and goats leap and 
run in a playful way, as any one who has observed them often 
has discovered. 

One can not easily tell when animals play. It seems to one 
looking on that sea-lions in making the wonderful loops through 
the water must be having great fun, but it may be just exercise. 
Mountain goats and chamois make high jumps as if they were 
set on springs. This must be pleasurable to them whether they 
ever make pure play of it or not. 

But there are instances where it is evident the exercise is play. 
A raccoon that had grown very fond of a particular dog would 
tussle with it, grabbing its throat, yet neither injured the other. 
It was just play. 

Barn swallows have been observed playing with a cat. One at a 
time they fly down and pass quite close to it. Of course the cat 
could never catch one on the wing. It looks as if they were just 
teasing. 

Groos in his book on the Play of Animals tells of the chamois 
sliding down a snow-covered incline. It first makes movements 
with its legs very much as in swimming, then slides down. It will 
climb up the incline just to do the same thing again. When there 
are several animals about, one after the other will try the sliding 
until all or nearly all have played. This is also a means of travel 
that they sometimes use when they are not playing. 

The beautiful songs of birds are surely sung in the play spirit 
because they seem to express so much joy. 

Flying squirrels have been seen frolicking. A naturalist saw 
in a grove near Philadelphia nearly two hundred playing in this 


72 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 



Courtesy of Henry Miller News News Picture Service 

Gertrude EdeRle 

way. A few began gliding from tree to tree, and after a while 
others joined them. Soon there were scores at a time crossing 
from tree to tree in every direction. Apparently it was done just 
for the joy of the flight. 


QUESTIONS 

1. Tell of experiences in play that tested what your bodies 
could do. 

2. Describe play where good strength counts for much more 
than anything else; where the way or the trick of the game is quite 
important; where good endurance is necessary. 

3. Name a few games where a free easy use of the body puts a 
player at a great advantage. Some wild animals combat with 
the very strong because of their greater skill and wariness in mo¬ 
tion. Name one such animal. Name a game that you did not 
enjoy until you learned to play it right. 

4. What does “fair play” mean to you? How can the spirit of 
fair play be cultivated on the school playground? 

5. Look in the Appendix of this book and list all the different 
classes of games. Do you neglect to play quiet games in your 
school? What kinds of games are played most? 

6. Use the games in the Appendix and try to make the school 
play better. See what improvement is made during the term. 





XIV. OUR LUNGS AND THEIR CARE 


We can not have strong bodies without good lungs. We 
need good lungs so our bodies can have plenty of oxygen 
from the air. Neither our muscles nor any part of our 
bodies can use food unless they have oxygen to burn it. 

Our lungs grow by breathing. About once every three 
seconds they fill with air. It makes them strong to draw 
nearly all the air they can, and then to expel as much as 
they can. The air they expel is not needed by the body. 
It has been used. The heart sends to the lungs the blood 
that has traveled all over the body. This blood leaves 
in the lungs waste gases which were gathered from other 
parts of the body, and it takes up oxygen from the fresh 
air found in the lungs. 

When we exercise, blood flows more rapidly to the 
lungs to get the oxygen and to leave waste gases. Our 
lungs then have more to do. They expel the waste 
gases. They draw in fresh air. This makes them grow. 

We should breathe through our noses and not through 
our mouths. When we breathe through our noses, the 
air is brushed by little hairs in the nose lining. In this 
way dust and dirt are removed from the air. Adenoid 
growths in our throats and swollen tonsils usually stop the 
nasal openings and then we are forced to be mouth 
breathers. If we are mouth breathers we are almost sure 
to have colds often. We should breathe through our noses. 

73 


74 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


To have strong lungs we should breathe fresh cool air 
when we sleep. We should stand and sit straight, that our 
lungs may have room to fill themselves with air at each 
breath. We should practice taking full breaths until it 


Inspiration 



Increased Air 
Space 



Expiration 


Diagrammatic Sections of the Body in Inspiration 
and Expiration 


is a habit. We should take long walks and play out in 
the open and so exercise our lungs. 

To live a long life we need good lungs. To fight 
tuberculosis and many other diseases we need good lungs. 
To win ball games and take long hikes we need good lungs. 
To have strong bodies we need good lungs. We can have 
good lungs, for we can help them grow strong. 




OUR LUNGS AND THEIR CARE 


75 - 


Circumference of the Lungs 

Use a tape measure to find the size of the chest when the 
lungs are emptied, and the size when the lungs are filled. 

The difference between this measurement when the 
lungs are emptied and when they are filled tells your chest 
capacity for breathing. You should measure for this 
difference often enough to know how much more air you 
can breathe as you grow bigger. 

Breathing Exercises 
For Out of Doors or with Open Windows 

Repeat any of the breathing exercises given below 
several times. Select one exercise at a time and practice it. 

1. Stand tall. Breathe in all the air you can. 

Then while your teacher counts i, 2, 3, see how much 
more you can breathe in. Keep repeating this exercise 
day after day and you will soon learn that after you think 
you have breathed as much air as you can that you can 
breath more. 

2. Stand tall. Mouth closed. 

Inhale while silently counting to ten, if it is easier to 
count slowly, or to twenty if it is easier to count fast. 

Exhale slowly. 

3. Stand tall. Mouth closed. 

Lift the arms sideward, upward, stretching the body tall 
and inhale while doing so. (Do not lift the shoulders too 
high.) 

Lower the arms and exhale, patting your chest. 

Be sure to empty your lungs of all the air that you can. 


76 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


4. The same as No. 2 except the arms are raised for¬ 
ward and up. 

Arms are lowered sideways in exhaling. 

5. Stand tall. Mouth closed. 

Place hands on hips. Breathe deeply. (Do not let all 



Lungs and Air Passages 

The right lung shows the lobes and their divisions, the lobules. The tissue 
of the left lung has been cut away to show the air tubes. 

the breathing be wholly in the upper part of the chest. 
Let the lower trunk help.) 

Pat your chest when you exhale. 

6. Mouth closed. 

Exhale with mouth open as you bend your trunk for- 


OUR LUNGS AND THEIR CARE 


77 


ward, knees straight. Make a noise doing it. Then 
straighten trunk, drawing in as full a breath as you can 
while doing so. 

Exhale slowly. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Helps for Good Breathing 

Breathe fresh air and air that is not overheated as many hours 
of the twenty-four as you can. 

If you breathe through your mouth, find out why. 

Stop for a couple of minutes about three times each day and 
stand straight as you can and breathe deeply and slowly. This 
makes your lungs strong and develops your chest. 

Practice breathing exercises such as those given on pages 75 
and 76 until you naturally breathe so. Breathing muscles have to 
grow strong by use the same as other muscles. Use exercise five 
given on page 76 often. 

There is no better way to grow strong lungs than breathing 
well while you walk. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Turn to the drawing, page 76, and look at the lung. Tell 
how it is held in place. Locate the tiny air sacs. 

2. Why is it important that we breathe deeply and make the 
lungs fill up with air? 

3. Why is it important to breathe through the nose rather 
than the mouth? 

4. What are strong lungs? How do we make them strong? 

5. Why is fresh air better than air that is not fresh? 


XV. WALKING 

We should walk with the same ease of movement that 
most animals have. 

The trunk is united to legs and arms by long muscles. 
The spine keeps our body in balance in a wonderful way, 
as we have already discovered. Every time we step, 
movement runs up through the trunk and on to our head. 
It is not one leg striding and then the other as if the trunk 
had nothing to do with it. It is the body standing tall, 
balancing itself first on one foot and then on the other. 
The secret of walking naturally is just that, and always 
straightening the body to its full height each time. 

The foot is pointed straight forward. The body is 
balanced well over the ball of the forward foot before the 
step is completed. When the body is thus balanced, the 
other leg is free. It will swing easily. Thus we get the 
rhythm that makes walking so enjoyable. 

Try doing this: Do not think you are going to walk. 
Just stand easily with one foot forward. Let the body’s 
weight balance over it. Feel tall. Notice that the other 
leg is free. Swing it. Let it come forward, and then 
rest your weight on it. Feel tall again. Now the other 
leg swings. If you keep playing with the walking move¬ 
ment in this way you will soon discover its secret —its 
wonder. No one can tell it to you. 

78 


WALKING 


79 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
Shoes and the Feet that Wear Them 

The shoes of the American soldier are one of the best styles of 
shoes made. They have a low, broad heel and thick soles. They 
do not cramp the feet. In them the soldier can take long marches 
without making his feet pain and hurt. 

Great care is taken in fitting the soldier with his first army shoes. 
The most careful measurements are made, and when he is being 
fitted he walks down an inclined plank to test the fit. When he is 
once properly fitted, his size is marked and this is used when he 
needs shoes again. 

No one can walk well in shoes that do not fit. People who wear 
narrow shoes with high heels have become used to walking and 
standing in the wrong way. It often makes them appear awkward. 

It is important that boys and girls wear shoes that fit them, for 
growing muscles and ligaments are easily harmed by pressure. 
Besides, the body will not grow straight if it is thrown out of bal¬ 
ance by wearing the wrong shoes. A shoe, broad across the balls 
of the feet, neither too large, nor too small, nor too light, nor too 
heavy, and with low heel, is best. 

Why Some Armies Do Not Have Their Soldiers March in Step 

A soldier in making long marches finds it tiresome to take just 
the same length of step that other soldiers take and to step in 
the same time all day long. He loses his own rhythm and it 
makes his muscles very tired to use another rhythm. This is why 
in some armies the soldiers are allowed to walk without really 
marching. 

Interesting Observations on the Propelling Motion of 
Creatures in Nature 

The deer runs with a smooth united movement of the whole 
body; one bound starts the next, and so on. This describes a kind 


8 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


of rhythm common to many wild animals. The jumps of the 
mountain goat and chamois are rhythmic in that sense; so is the 
flying motion of most birds. 

One jump of the rabbit seems to produce a spring that starts 
the next. 

The elephant, though large and clumsy in appearance, sways 
its whole body in a most rhythmic way when walking. 

It is fascinating to watch the action of the muscles of the tiger’s 
body as the animal walks. 

The tail and fins of a fish help to guide and propel it through 
the water. Flippers and a tail serve a like purpose for the sea- 
lion. Wings propel a bird through the air. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What experiences have you had in walking as described in 
this lesson? 

2. What is the style of shoe worn by the American soldier? 

3. What are the marks of a good shoe for anyone? 

4. Aside from crippling the feet, what other harm does the 
wrong shoe do? 

5. How should the foot point in walking? From a physician 
learn how a weak arch may be straightened, and what should be 
done for “flat foot.” 

6. To find your natural rhythm in walking you should first 
walk properly. Why? 

7. How would you suggest that one find his natural rhythm? 

8. Let a group who carry their bodies well walk on the play¬ 
ground, and see what you notice about then: movements. 


XVI. REST AND SLEEP 


Our bodies grow while we sleep. They rest too. Our 
nervous system must have rest. Our brain cells must have 
sleep. A twelve-year-old boy or girl needs to take about 
nine or ten hours of sleep each night. If we lose much 
sleep, we shall not grow as we should. If we lose enough 
sleep, our bodies will be in a starved condition very much 
as they are when we do not feed them well. 

We should have the sleep we need. If we do not have 
enough sleep, we can only make up the loss by sleeping. 
There is nothing to take the place of sleep. If we do not 
have enough sleep while we are growing, we are not likely 
to have good bodies when we are full grown. 

The sleep we have should be good sleep. When we 
sleep we need good air to breathe. We should have a 
quiet room and we should not sleep in clothing that is 
moist from being worn during the day. We should have 
as good sleep as we can have. Then our bodies grow, and 
they rest too. 

Sometimes during the day we should rest our bodies. 
We should rest after we have been doing things for a few 
hours. It is better if we rest at about the same time 
each day. Then we form the habit of resting and are not 
likely to forget it. We should rest our minds too! We 
should learn to relax and just rest as contentedly as ani¬ 
mals do. Good sleep and rest do us good. 

81 


82 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Helps for Good Sleep 

Have fresh air in your room when you sleep. Put up a screen 
if there is too much draft or wind. 

Make yourself ready for sleep. Hang up your clothes to air 
and be orderly. 

If you are excited and can not go to sleep easily, breathe deeply 
until you are calm. Sometimes by drinking warm milk or eating 
a few crackers, sleep will come. 

Do not worry about things. Think pleasant, happy thoughts. 
Be hopeful about anything thac troubles you, for your sleep will 
be better, and your mind will be forming a good habit. 

Helps for Taking Rest 

Do not play one active game after another with no time for 
rest just because others do this. If you feel that you need to rest, 
it is a good sign that you do. 

When you are busy and stop for a rest period, do not make the 
time so long that the spirit of work is lost. 

Long idleness causes fatigue too. To rest from this, try to find 
something to do. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How many hours of the twenty-four are required for your 
sleep? 

2. Name several ways that growing boys and girls may rob 
themselves of sleep. 

3. How can repair from loss of sleep be made? 

4. How is lack of sleep and rest harmful to our bodies? 

5. What are good conditions for sleeping? for taking rest? 

6. How should one feel after a night’s sleep? Why is good 
sleep especially important for a growing boy or girl? 



XVII. OUR BODIES LEARN TO DO THINGS 

If we should name the many things we like to do, it 
would fill several pages of a book. When we are sick, we 
get well quicker if we are given something to do. The 
picture shows soldiers at work in their hospital. The 


Disabled Soldiers Learning Handicrafts 

young women are teaching them to weave rugs and baskets, 
and to make other things. Because the soldiers are busy 
doing things, they will be well quicker; also they gain 
better use of their crippled arms and legs. We all like to 

83 





84 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

do things and when we are well we can do many of the 
things we like to do. 

Many animals can do things apparently without learn¬ 
ing how. Young ducks swim the first time they go in to 
the water. Young birds can usually fly a little the first 
time they try. Our bodies are made so that we can learn 
to do nearly anything we want to do, but we must first 
learn. 

Boy Scouts have listed seventy-six things and Girl 
Scouts fifty-three things that they like to do. See how 
many of these you would like to do. 

Let us learn to do something worth while each year and 
learn it so well we will not forget. 

Teach our young bodies something new, 

It’ll lead to ten things we can do. 

Let our bodies idle be, 

Some day we’ll cry “Oh useless me!” 

References. — Handbook for Boy Scouts, purchased from Boy Scouts 
of America, No. 2 Park Avenue, New York City. Price in 1928, 50 cents. 
Handbook for Girl Scouts, purchased from Girl Scouts, 189 Lexington 
Avenue, New York City. Price in 1927, 50 cents. Bulletins on Garden¬ 
ing, Raising Farm Animals, Sewing, and Cooking, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. No charge. (Write also to your own 
State Agricultural School.) 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

“Do Small Things Well ” says the President 

The President of the United States sent a Christmas greeting 
to the Scouts and 4-H clubs. In this message President Coolidge 
said: 

“We need never fear that we shall not be called on to do great 


OUR BODIES LEARN TO DO THINGS 85 

things in the future, if we do small things well at present. . . . 
There is a time for play as well as for work. But even in play it is 
possible to cultivate the art of well 
doing. Games are useful to train the 
eye, the hand and the muscles and 
bring the body more completely under 
control of the mind. When this is done 
instead of being a waste of time, play 
becomes a means of education.” 

Whoever occupies the White House 
as President and First Lady are Hon¬ 
orary President respectively of the 
Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. 

Do Nature Creatures Learn 
to do Things? 

Many of the things done by nature 
creatures do not have to be learned. 

The caterpillar knows how to spin its 
cocoon and to tie it fast without 
learning. The little chicken walks 
about after it is a few hours old. Young 
robins frequently leave the nest before 
they are quite ready to fly. But they get out of the nest and after 
a little practice fly. 

Some birds practice until they learn to sing different tunes. 
Baltimore orioles kept where they did not hear the song of their 
parents did not sing it. They learn their song from hearing it sung. 

The mocking bird, brown thrasher, catbird, starling, yellow¬ 
breasted chat, and some other birds learn the songs or the calls of dif¬ 
ferent birds and imitate them. Parrots learn to whistle and to talk. 

Several birds and many beasts may be taught fairly easily to do 
tricks and some learn to do things by their own intelligence. But 
they do most by instinct without really learning. 



Courtesy of Columbia Council, 
Boy Scouts of America 


Loren Adams, District 
of Columbia, Presents 
Handbook for Boys to 
President Coolidge. 

Loren has mastered 68 of 
the 76 Boy Scout activities. 





86 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


QUESTIONS 

1. How do our bodies learn to do things? Give experience in 
learning to do some one thing well. 

2. How many different things can the members of the class 
name that they like to do? 

3. Why is it very bad for us to grow up unable to do things? 

4. What ability must a boy scout have who wins a merit badge 
in a handicraft? 

5. What is required to win a Golden Eaglet in Girl Scouts? 
If you have a girl scout manual in the school library, read what is 
required to win some of the twenty-one merit badges leading to 
the Golden Eaglet badge. 


xvm. WE CAN MAKE OUR WORK EASIER 


We should take unnecessary burdens from our work in 
every way we can. When we wash dishes we should have 
plenty of hot water and fresh clean towels. When we 
work at our desks we should have no disorderliness about 
us, and our pencils, if we are using them, should have a 
good point. We enjoy doing what we are ready to do. 
We should have the necessary tools to work with. Let us 
not grow up burdened so that we can not accomplish 
things. If habits can save our minds, let them do it. If 
our heads can save our heels, let them do it. If a shelf or 
window or table or tool will save us from labor and the 
burden of it, let us be master and have them. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
How Farm Work is Made Easier by Good Machinery 

At one time farmers cut their wheat with a cradle. There was 
no reaper. Holding the long, curved handle, the cradler would 
make a big sweep with his arms and send its large knife through 
the standing wheat. As the wheat was cut, it fell on a row of 
long teeth fastened to the cradle for this purpose. Back and 
forth across the field he worked all day, cutting the yellow swaying 
grain. But at the end of his day’s work, only a small strip of the 
field had been covered. 

A man binding followed the cradler, tying the wheat into bun¬ 
dles. When evening came, if the sky showed signs of heavy rain, 
everybody that could be found hurried into the field to build the 
bundles into wheat shocks. 


87 


88 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 



Then the reaper was invented. Now this machine cuts more 
wheat in crossing the field once than a cradler can cut in going 
several times across. It binds the wheat into bundles, too. Har¬ 
vesters can now harvest many acres in a short time, and the work 
is much easier than when cradler and binder did it by hand. 


A Reaper in Use 

Doing Sitting Work by Standing and Standing Work by Sitting 

Certain work both in the home and in factory requires long 
hours of sitting or of standing. When this can be done by sitting 
a while and then standing, it is easier. Ironing and much kitchen 
work can be done so, if tables and chairs are of proper heights. 
By changing position, bones and muscles that have been held long 
in one way are rested. 

In a factory an American engineer interested in making work 
easier made a chair for handkerchief folders. It is of the height 
that allows the elbow to be at the same distance from the work 
table when sitting as when standing. A foot-rest is attached to 
the table. The workers change from one position to the other. 



WE CAN MAKE OUR WORK EASIER 89 

They are less tired after the day’s work and they have accom- 
plished more. 

How a Man Loaded 47 y 2 Tons of Pig Iron Easier than he 
had been Loading 12 Tons 

In a big steel factory, thousands of men were at work loading 
big pieces of iron into a car. A man stood watching them. He 
saw that the workers were under load much longer than they 
needed to be and that there were many useless motions made. 
He pointed out to the manager ways of lessening the effort of the 
men and yet let them accomplish more. 

One day when this man, who was an efficiency engineer, was at 
the factory, the manager called a big, strong workman to him and 
asked him if he would like to earn more money. Of course he 
wanted to earn more money. The manager showed him a pile 
of pig iron three times the usual amount for a day’s work and 
told him if he loaded it he could earn more, and that he could do 
it if he did as he was told. Then the efficiency engineer took charge. 
The big workman obeyed him, lifting and, carrying the load as 
he was told to do and resting when he was told to rest. At the 
end of the day he had loaded the big pile. Day after day he put 
into the car more than 40 tons of pig iron instead of the 12 tons 
that had been his record. Working by the new method he was 
free from the load 58 per cent of the time. 

More Work in Less Time 

When the Honorable Herbert Hoover was Secretary of the. 
Department of Commerce, he organized a division of workers 
whose business it is to help the nation to do its work in less time. 
These men and women have found that there is much wasted 
effort because manufacturers make more kinds of products than 
people need; for example, 66 different varieties of paving brick, 
78 of beds, springs, and mattresses, 49 of milk bottles, 78 of bed 
blankets, and so for many articles. 


9 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


It takes longer to manufacture 66 varieties of paving brick than 
five. Also the brick merchant has more to do in keeping in his 
stores many varieties of brick than if he kept a few. The man who 
wants to pave his street can select from a few kinds of brick more 
easily than from a large number. It is cheaper and better for the 
manufacturer, merchant, and consumer if only five varieties of 
paving brick are placed on the market. Your mother would save 
time and money when she goes to purchase a mattress if there were 
only four varieties — and this number has been found sufficient. 
Otherwise she pays in her purchase for the extra cost that comes 
from having on the market many varieties of mattresses. Some 
industries are learning how to save work, time, and expense by 
making only the necessary variety of goods. It is a good way to 
make work easier and living cheaper. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Name some work you do that you enjoy as you do play. 

2. How do we save ourselves from fretting over the little things 
we do each day? 

3. Do you do anything that could be made easier by proper 
tools? Explain. 

4. Why should a kitchen and class room be pleasant places 
to work in? 

5. What does orderliness have to do with making what we do 
pleasant? 

6. Describe a class room that is also a good work room. 

7. Describe a kitchen that serves well for what is to be done 
in it. 

8. Tell how you get ready for some work before it is time to 
do it. 

9. Give an illustration of making work easier by changing 
positions when at work. 

10. How do tables of proper height and other such conveniences 
lighten labor? How does good light help? 


XIX. OUR SKIN AND ITS CARE 


Our skin is so made that by keeping it clean we save our 
bodies from giving out bad odors. Inside the body the 
organs and the muscles make waste as they work just as 
factories do. The carbon dioxide gas reaches the lungs 
and escapes with our breath. Other wastes reach the 
kidneys. Others escape through the pores of the skin. 
We should wash these away before they begin to decay 
and smell. We should bathe carefully, using warm water 
and soap at least twice a week to destroy unpleasant 
body odors. We should change to fresh clean under¬ 
clothing once a week or oftener. This is especially neces¬ 
sary if we perspire much. 

Our skin is so made that it helps to keep our bodies cool. 
We perspire a little all the time. In doing some kinds of 
work people may perspire as much as several quarts of 
perspiration a day. This perspiration comes from sweat 
glands or sac-like tubes in our skin. The glands or little 
tubes open on the surface of the skin. Our skin is covered 
with these openings or pores. We should bathe frequently 
to keep oil and dirt from filling the holes up. Then, too, 
we also keep pus germs away by having our skin clean. 

Our skin not only covers and protects the body, but it is 
also a sense organ. The touch cells with their nerves are 
in it. The skin of our finger tips and of the tip of the 

91 


92 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


tongue has many touch cells. Through the finger tips 
we learn the hardness or softness of an object and what 
its shape is. We can tell what is rough and what is 

smooth. We could 
not learn very much 
from holding things 
in our hand if the 
touch cells were not 
in our finger tips. 

Our skin grows. 
It keeps soft and 
pliable. We make it 
better by rubbing it 
well with a rough 
towel after we bathe. 

gives it exer¬ 
cise. We should wear 
porous underclothing 
that takes up the 
perspiration, and in winter our clothes should be soft 
and warm. 

We do not like to be near persons whose bodies have 
unpleasant odors. We like to see skin that is clean and 
shows health. We want the hair to be glossy and clean 
too. We want finger nails to show that they are cared 
for and kept clean. Good care of the skin is better than 
making use of perfumes and powders. People respect 
us for keeping our person clean and we respect ourselves 
for doing so. 



Vertical Section of the Skin 







OUR SKIN AND ITS CARE 


93 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Interesting Facts about the Sense of Touch 

The points of two sharpened pencils held side by side on the 
finger tip seem two, but seem only one when touching the back of 
the hand. From any part of the skin we can tell differences in 
the feel of woolen, cotton, or silk clothing. 

Some persons can distinguish small seeds, grains, flour, meal, 
and sand, through the sense of touch. Any one may learn to do 
so by experience in using the sense of touch. The sense of touch 
may be so highly developed that a deaf, blind, and dumb person 
trained to lip reading can tell what another says by placing his 
fingers lightly on the lips of the person speaking. 

The mother spider can tell whether friend or foe has lighted on 
her web by the vibrations that travel down the radius of the orb 
on which she rests. 

Spiders, ants and bees have tiny hairs, each of which connects 
with nerves. Their sense of touch is keen. There are touch hairs 
on the wings, legs, antennae or feelers, and inside the jaws of the 
honey-bee. Dr. N. E. Mclndoo, who has given generously of his 
knowledge of the senses of insects for use in this book, concludes 
that it must be through the touch hairs on the tips of the jaws of 
the honey-bee that it can make the honeycomb of even thinness 
throughout. 

A bat has been known to fly about in the dark in a furnished 
room without touching furniture or walls. In the thin membrane 
of its sail-like wings it catches the feeling of air pressure. This, 
more than sight, guides it in flying. 

The star-nosed mole has tentacles around its nose. These are 
very sensitive to touch. By them it is guided in making its way 
underground. 

The elephant has many touch cells at the end of his trunk. 
They help him select food. An old elephant that died a short 
time ago used to select the best parts of his hay, eat them, and 


94 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

leave the rest. When he was hungry again, he would go to the 
same pile and again select the best. He did it by feeling with his 
trunk. 

Facts about Odors of Insects, Beasts, and Man 

Dr. Mclndoo, to whom reference is made above, has detected 
four different odors about the bee hive: the hive odor, that is the 
odor from the whole collection of bees, the odor from pollen or 
bee bread, the wax odor, and the odor of the bee-sting. He has 
found also that the queen, drones, and workers each has its own 
odor. Of all the odors, the hive odor is most important, for it is 
the odor that lets the bees of a colony know each other. 

Honey-bees have tiny glands. These secrete liquids, which 
have odors. The wolf, the deer, and all animals have some kind 
of scent about them. Many of them know where their kind has 
passed because of the odor left. 

Some animals like the skunk secrete from special glands very 
disagreeable odors. These odors serve them well by keeping 
enemies away. 

Although man does not have a gland for the purpose of giving 
him a special odor, the wolf and the bear can tell where he has been 
by the odors he has left behind. The bloodhound knows the scent 
of different persons. A boy who was blind, deaf, and dumb is 
said to have known what persons entered his room by smell. 

Interesting Facts about the Coverings of Lower Creatures 

The common shore crab grows a shell around it when quite 
young. This hardens and can not grow any bigger. But the 
crab must grow, so it sheds this shell and grows another. Each is 
larger than the one it replaces. The crab has shed several shells 
before it is full grown. 

The bushy tail of the fox is used to keep its body warm when it 
lies in the cold. Its nose and paws would be in danger of freezing 
without it. 


OUR SKIN AND ITS CARE 


95 


Animals of the north usually have a heavy pelt or covering. The 
fox, lynx, bear, minx, otter, are examples. The animals of the 
south usually have light pelts. The Florida fox is not burdened 
with heavy fur. 

The New England hare sheds its dark coat of summer for a 
white one to match the snow. Its white coat is also heavier and 
warmer. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why should the wastes be removed from the body liquids? 

2. What wastes do they receive? How are these removed from 
the body? 

3. What part of this cleaning work does the skin do? When 
must we play a part? 

4. May our bodies be dirty when no dirt is visible? Explain. 

5. Though no dirt may have been seen, why does the skin 
look different after a good bath? 

6. What rewards come from being clean about our person? 

7. What is another reason for bathing the skin? For wearing 
clean porous underclothing? 

8. What body odor should a person have? 

9. What different services do we have from our skin? 

10. Name circumstances where it is important to have clean 
nails. What are good habits in keeping one's person clean? 


XX. OUR EARS AND THEIR CARE 

When we say our hearing is good, we mean that we hear 
as well as people generally do. Some of us hear perfectly 
what people about us are saying, but can not hear a 
cricket sing or the keen squeaking of a bat, or the song of 
the kinglet bird. Too, there are sounds of very low 
pitch that some of us do not hear. The call of the whip¬ 
poorwill is of very low pitch, yet most of us can hear it. 

The sounds that the majority of people usually hear are 
those that are neither quite high nor quite low in pitch. 
This natural difference in the range of sounds we can 
hear is due to the mechanism of the ear. If there are some 
parts of the receiving mechanism sensitive to very high 
pitch, and some sensitive to low pitch, and other parts to 
medium pitch, then we can hear sounds of a wide range. 
But most of us do not hear both the very low and the 
very high pitched sounds. 

It is said that about one third of our grown people 
have faulty hearing. Sometimes the fault is with one 
ear only. It is not easy to make our hearing right after it 
has become imperfect. But we can usually prevent it from 
becoming faulty. That is what we will do if we are wise. 

Most of the deafness of older persons is caused by ear¬ 
aches and running ears when they were children. This 
need not be. We can prevent earache, and if we have it for 
a time we can have a doctor find the cause and remove it. 

q6 


OUR EARS AND THEIR CARE 


97 


We want good ears for many, many years. We do not 
want to be deaf or partly deaf. We want to hear the 
joyful laughter of our comrades, the music of birds, and 
the rustling of leaves in the breezes. We want to hear the 
noises of approaching cars and signals that let us protect 
ourselves from danger. We can keep our hearing good by 
taking care of our ears. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
Interesting Facts about Ears and Hearing 

The dog, rabbit, cat, deer, and horse stick their ears up to listen. 
The mouse holds its ears so, for it must ever be ready to catch a 
sound. The pig’s ears hang down. It lifts its head to listen. 
The frog and chicken and other creatures of their classes do not 
have outside parts to their ears. A skin-like flap covers the 
opening. 

Birds and higher animals distinguish differences in sound. 
Some birds imitate the call of other birds. On hearing what seems 
to be a danger sound, a frog chorus will stop at once. A dog knows 
when his master’s voice is harsh and when kind. 

The wasp, bumble bee, honey-bee, fly, and some other insects 
produce sounds. The teeting noise of the honey-bee is caused 
by the quick motion of a membrane which causes the axillaries at 
the base of the wings to vibrate. 

The rabbit thumps the ground with his paw. It may be a signal 
for rabbits near by. Grasshoppers and crickets have sound- 
producing organs on their front legs. 

In man the outer ear catches the sound waves which are vibra¬ 
tions of air. This starts the membrane called the ear drum to 
moving in and out. One of the three little bones within the middle 
ear is fastened to this membrane and so moves with it and causes 
the other two bones to be set in motion. One of them pushes 


98 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 



Semicircular Canals 


Stirrup Anvil 


pharynx 


Diagram of the Ear 


against the next chamber of the ear. This puts the liquid in it in 
motion which carries the sensation of the sound waves to the 
nerves that in turn carry the message of sound to the brain. So 
wonderfully is this innermost part of the ear made that man hears 
long strains of beautiful music and also noises both far and 
near. The messages given the brain enable it to judge where 
sounds are.^ Often sound is felt in such a way that the whole body 
moves in its rhythm. 

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS 

1. Find, from the whisper test or watch test which your teacher 
may give you, how well you hear. 

2. Find what your habits are in caring for your ears. 

3. Remember that once your ears are broken it is usually too 
late to remedy the broken part. 

4. Think seriously about the reason for consulting a doctor for 
earache, and for not gouging into your ears yourself. 

5. Why do many persons become partly deaf? 






XXI. OUR SPECIAL SENSES 


We learn about the world around us by touch, taste, 
sight, sound, and smell. These are called our five special 
senses. Our bodies have organs for these senses. These are 
eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin — especially the skin of 
our finger tips and tip of the tongue. These organs alone 
could not let us know about things, but the brain receives 
the messages sent by them. Impulses travel over nerves 
from the outer sense organs to the different centers in the 
brain. It is this working together of brain and sense 
organs that lets us learn of the world around us. 

Of course what we want to learn first is what is good for 
us and what is harmful. Our sense of smell tells us of 
decaying foods that we should not eat. Through hearing 
we are warned of that which we know to be dangerous. 
Through touch we know whether an object is soft or hard 
or hot or cold or sharp or dull. 

But we want our special senses to do more than protect 
us. We want to learn all the interesting and useful things 
in the world that we can. That is why we train our sense 
organs and our brains to work together. We need to be 
observing of what we see. We should have the habit of 
seeing the things about us and remembering what we see. 

We may pass a shop window and not remember more 
than one thing that we saw, or we may pass it and remem¬ 
ber practically everything in it. We may know the voices 

99 


ioo HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


of a hundred children, so that we can distinguish one from 
the other, if our brain and sense of hearing are used and we 
take notice of voices. We may by touch alone be able to 
distinguish silk, linen, cotton, worsted, and woolen cloths. 
We may be able to tell at once the inch, foot, yard, gill, 
pint, and gallon. We can train ourselves to give attention 
to the way things feel and look; to the odors of air, water, 
plants, animals, and people; to the sounds of birds and 
insects, the tones from musical instruments; and to the 
tastes given us from the natural flavors of foods. 

In many, many ways we can train our special senses. 
There is no other way to learn at first hand about the world 
in which we live. We can not learn intelligently from 
books unless we have learned about the world through 
our special senses first, for people who write books tell 
us largely of what they have seen, heard, touched, tasted, 
or smelled. It is only as we imagine what their experi¬ 
ences were that we can understand their books. 

Let us learn to notice what we see, and hear, to remem¬ 
ber how things smell and to know things by touch and 
taste. Then the world will seem a bigger, fuller world, 
and we shall find more to enjoy in it. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Helen Keller 

Helen Keller was born in Alabama. She is still living. When 
she was little more than a year old, she had a severe illness and it 
left her blind, deaf, and dumb. Her parents had heard of a school 
in Boston where such children were taught, but living so far away 


OUR SPECIAL SENSES 


IOI 



American Bible Society 

Helen Keller 

they did not know how to secure a teacher, nor did they think 
one would come so far to teach only one child. 

Time went on. Helen was no longer a baby, and the older she 
grew the more unhappy she was. It is not strange that she went 
into fits of anger, or that she was not sorry for doing wrong. 
One day she locked her mother in the pantry and left her there. 
After that she took the first chance she could to fasten the door of 
a room where a servant was. This time she hid the key. 






io 2 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


All this grieved her parents. They searched for help. But 
what help could there be? There was a specialist far away in 
Baltimore, Maryland, of whom they heard, and not knowing what 
else to do they took Helen and went to him. 

Through him they learned of Dr. Graham Bell in Washington, 
and thither they went at once. Helen did not like traveling any 
better than she did anything else. Her life tormented her as if 
she were shut in a box. But she liked Dr. Bell. He understood 
the blind and deaf as few men have done. Helen sat in his lap 
while he told her parents that a teacher could be found and that 
Helen would become a happy child. 

It was eight months later before a teacher came to the Alabama 
home. Miss Sullivan proved to be a wise teacher. It delighted 
Helen to have words spelled into her hands, for she liked the feeling 
of the movemeqts, but she did not know what they meant. She 
was as far away from the world as before. Again and again, her 
teacher tried to make her know that the movements meant the 
thing she touched. One day when they were at the well-house 
and water was pouring over her hand as the word was spelled into 
it, it came to her that water meant the cool something she felt. 
It was a joyous moment. Of this experience she writes in her 
book called The Story of My Life, “1 left the w^ll-house eager to 
learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a 
new thought. As we returned to the house, every object I touched 
seemed to quiver with life.” As she lay in her bed that night, 
she lived over the joy this experience had brought her and for 
the first time in her life she longed for a new day. 

There were no lesson periods. Her teacher taught her wherever 
they were. Helen built dams of pebbles, made lakes and islands, 
and dug river beds, not knowing she was learning geography. 
Then she listened as movements made in her hand told of the 
round world with its burning mountains, and rivers of moving ice. 

Out among nature, touch and the feeling of motion came 
to take the place of sight and sound. Once she sat in a tree during 


OUR SPECIAL SENSES 


103 


the beginning of a thunderstorm. She felt jars as if something 
very heavy had fallen to the ground near her. At different times 
she felt the rustling of corn blades and the vibration of the wings 
of an insect when she shut it inside a flower. She knew when the 
sky was cloudy, for then the air was cooler. She knew from the 
smell of the earth when a rain might come. 

One day when she was trying very hard, her teacher spelled 
the word “think” on her forehead. Helen understood that this 
meant what was going on in her head. It was a new kind of word. 
It opened up another new world. She was a long time finding 
what was meant by “ love.” Was it the warmth of the sun? Was 
it the fragrance of roses? But now she could think, and when 
love was explained as something she would not be happy without, 
she understood. 

Miss Sullivan took her to the Boston school where there were 
other deaf children. What pleased her most was learning to talk. 
Day and night she struggled to make her throat and lip move¬ 
ments like those of her teacher. Then she practiced repeatedly 
each word and each syllable. Can you imagine how difficult it is 
to learn to make sounds that you have never heard? It took all 
her courage to persist in this long task, but when she returned to 
her home and could talk to her mother, sister, and father, and by 
feeling their lips tell what they said, it was her happiest moment. 

Thus it is that Helen Keller has come to know the loveliness and 
beauty of the world and to love and enjoy friends and companions. 
She reads books. She has met and talked with great writers and 
actors. She is loved and admired by her friends. Without either 
sight or hearing she has gained, with the use of the senses left her, 
great knowledge of the world and its people. 

What Special Senses Serve Insects, Birds, and Animals 

The senses of smell and touch serve the honey-bee best. Dr. 
Mclndoo gives us yet other facts about this insect: The honey¬ 
bee goes out to gather nectar from flowers. When it returns the 


io 4 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


guards let it enter the hive because it has the hive odor about it. 
If it stays away three days and it no longer smells like the hive, 
it is refused admittance. If the queen disappears the bees of the 
hive do not know it at first. They seem to discover it when they 
miss her smell from the hive. Perhaps it is the odor of the bee¬ 
hive that keeps the bees together. 

The sense of touch helps in the hive work. Bees fly to their 
place of shelter before a thunderstorm. It probably is because 
they can feel differences in the air pressure. 

The sense of smell is highly developed in the fly. Taste and 
smell seem to be one in both the honey-bee and the fly. 

The bear and wolf depend largely on the sense of smell, both in 
finding food and in learning of the nearness of enemies. A wolf 
follows the scent of meat burning miles away. He can tell whether 
a wolf or another animal has passed by. 

The bloodhound hardly knows anything else but scents and 
odors. The deer depends on smell, sight, and hearing. It knows 
quickly if a man approaches the windward way. 

The mole depends on touch. 

The mouse depends chiefly on hearing and seeing. 

The bat finds its way in flying by sensing air pressure. 

The fox gives signals by its voice. All birds and animals that 
do this must depend on hearing to catch the warnings given. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Tell one experience you have had from each special sense — 
sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. 

2. How does the brain help in using the special senses? 

3. What wonderful thing has Helen Keller accomplished? 

4. Tell experiences where your special senses protected you. 

5. In the sense training exercises that your teacher may pro¬ 
vide, tell what you discover about training the special senses. 


XXII. THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 


Look at the action picture below. See how the move¬ 
ment is held and the body strength united for one purpose. 



Wide World Photos 

An Action Picture 


It is through our nervous system that we learn to do 
things, and to control our bodies. 

We have just seen that the nervous system is most 
important in the use of our sense organs. Without 
nerves and nerve cells in the brain, we could not see or 
hear or taste or smell or feel by touch even though we 

105 




io6 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


have sense organs. In the same way, the action of heart, 
lungs, stomach, and all the internal organs depend on 
nerves and masses of nerve cells. 

There are masses of nerve cells in different parts of the 
body, so that the nervous impulses do not always have to 
go to the brain. But nervous impulses for breathing and 
the beating of the heart travel to the hind brain. 

With all of this work done for us, we still train our 
nervous system in much of its action. Some of us act on 
any impulse that comes to our minds without checking 
ourselves or waiting to decide what is best. But most of 
us train our nervous system to do certain things in cer¬ 
tain ways. Some of us have not trained ourselves to say 
“no” to impulses that we should not follow. We should 
learn to make decisions and abide by them. 

We should have good habits of work and play, and 
good health habits. Thus we care for our nervous sys¬ 
tem, and make it useful to us. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Observations about the Nervous Systems of Nature Creatures 

Dinosaurs, which, as stated in the reading following lesson VII, 
are now extinct, had large masses of nerve cells in their bodies, but 
comparatively small brains. 

The special senses of the lower forms of life would be of no 
service without nerves any more than they would be for man. 
Insects have tiny nerves attached to the cells of touch and smell. 

Gnats that swarm around lights would go directly to the hottest 
part of it, if they did not have nerve cells that let them feel the 
heat. 


THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



107 


Diagram Showing Arrangement of Nervous System 


ic8 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


Nearly all creatures of the wild are alert. Their nervous systems 
keep ready for quick action. 

When the hind brain is taken from a pigeon, it cannot control 
its body or fly well. This shows that the part of the nervous sys¬ 
tem used in directing movement has been lost. When the front 
brain is taken or injured so that it does not function well, it shows 
no signs of fear and is no longer alert. 

A dog that was given alcohol regularly lost its ability to do 
tricks, and it was no longer intelligent or showed lovable qualities. 
Its brain and nervous system had been harmed. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Name several ways in which our nervous system is important 
to us. 

2. Tell how you sometimes obey and sometimes refuse to obey 
what you have an impulse to do. 

3. What signs have you that your nervous system is well 
cared for? 

4. What training do you give it because of your habits and 
your ways of doing things? 


XXIII. THE BRAIN 


We want a good brain as much as we do good bodies. 
Sometimes we do not know that this is one of the things we 
desire. Many people are unhappy because they have let 
their brains be idle, and they do not know what is the 
matter. We have seen how unhappy Helen Keller was 
when she could not learn things of the world about her. 

We know that the purpose of large parts of the brain 
surface is to let us learn through the special sense organs. 
There is also a portion which lets us learn through doing 
things with our muscles. Our brain lets us think. With 
it we imagine and plan. Because of it we use will power. 
Through it we gain good sense. When we have sense 
and use it, we are not likely to let feelings of jealousy 
and hatred master us. There are many reasons why we 
should desire a good brain. 

We want a brain that lets us think well. We learn to 
think through doing things and thinking as we do them. 
We learn to think when we study and when we play a 
hard game. We learn to think in planting and growing 
a garden intelligently. 

Through what goes on in our brain we gain our likes and 
dislikes. When we taste food it is really our brain that 
tells us whether we like it or not. It gives us our feelings 
about what we see and hear and touch and smell. Because 
of it we know that sunshine makes us happy and that the 

109 


no HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

spirit of Christmas gladdens us. The love and kindness 
we feel and our desire to excel and to win come from what 
has taken place in our brain. 

Our brain grows, but not as the rest of the body does. 
Our bodies become bigger because the number of tiny 


MOTOR AREA / 



cells that make up each part increase. Our brain is made 
up of tiny cells too, but we have when we are born all the 
brain or nerve cells we can ever have. 

Though the number of nerve cells remains the same, 
their branches, called dendrites , grow and increase in 
number. When we smell honeysuckle for the first time, 







THE BRAIN 


hi 


a group of brain cells receives the sensation of this odor. 
These cells tell us that it is not anything we know. 
Some one informs us it is honeysuckle. The next time we 
are near honeysuckle we recognize it. Soon we think of 
the word “honeysuckle’’ as soon as we catch the fragrance 
of this flower. During this experience branches of nerve 
cells have made new connections. They have grown a 
little. 

Our brain needs food as do the other parts of our 
bodies. The blood stream carries food to both brain and 
muscles. When muscles or stomach need most of the 
blood, it is not a good time to study. 

The brain cells that let us learn and do things must have 
sleep. We should not study or use the brain for any one 
purpose too long. But we should work at a thing long 
enough to accomplish something, for that is how our 
brain is exercised. It is how the dendrites grow. 

We may train our brain as long as we live, but the 
training we give it when we are growing is worth most to 
us. We can have a good brain by using it to learn about 
the world around us; by thinking about what we read, 
and how we do things. A good brain helps us to be 
happy now and all the rest of our lives. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

How Sleep Helps Us to Remember 

When the writer’s sister was a girl in the public schools, she 
enjoyed learning poems and even prose. She sometimes memo¬ 
rized a long poem in less than an hour. When she knew the poem 


112 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


except for remembering how the hard parts connected, she would 
do something to help her remember that. If she learned a 
poem in the morning, she could not trust herself to recite it 
that afternoon, but the next day, even though she had not 
studied or repeated it any more, she was sure to say it without a 
mistake. 

Can you guess why? 

While she was learning the poem the nerve cells and dendrites 
grew tired. They did not fully rest until after a good night’s 
sleep. The next day when they were rested, it was easy for her 
to repeat the poem. 

“We Learn to Skate in Summer and Swim in Winter” 

The writer knows a school girl who has experiences in solving 
reasoning problems in arithmetic very like that in the memorizing 
described above. This girl is much interested in such problems 
and is able to solve very hard ones. She often finds that after 
she has worked hard on a problem — at different times during one 
day or more, and no longer has any new ideas on it — she can 
leave it alone for a day or several days, become thoroughly rested, 
and then solve it. 

Her experience seems to come under the law that a famous 
student of the mind, Professor William James, has stated in this 
way, “We learn to skate (ice skating) in summer, and to swim in 
winter.” What this means for the brain and nervous systems is 
easily said. During the winter, when practicing to learn to skate 
new nerve paths are made to control the new movements that the 
body must make. Then during summer when there is no ice 
to skate on, the new nerve paths are not lost. After the long 
rest, it is easier to skate than before. By this we learn that we 
do not waste our effort when we try to do something. Some time 
later we may succeed and the earlier efforts have helped us to 
do it. 


THE BRAIN 


n 3 

Indications that Lower Animals Learn by Remembering 
What they have Experienced 

A bird returning to its nest noticed a strange object in the sur¬ 
roundings. It had remembered the surroundings sufficiently to 
know there was a change. 

If eggs of another kind of bird are put into a bird’s nest, it 
often will leave it. 

A wolf remembers the smell of a place so well that if another 
odor has been left there he knows it. 

The Baltimore oriole uses grays and whites in making its nest. 
When many colored yarns were placed where one of these birds 
could use them, it selected gray and white and left the bright 
colors. 

Trappers know that animals frequently become very wary after 
a few attempts to catch them have been made. 

Almost any wild creature will be concerned on hearing a strange 
sound. Once it discovers what it is or that it is not harmful, it is 
usually no longer aroused by it. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Can you explain any experience when you felt glad that you 
had a brain? 

2. Explain why Helen Keller was unable to learn about the 
world for so long. 

3. What makes us learn to think? 

4. How does the brain grow? 

5. Tell what the supplementary readings mean to you. 

6. Apply the meaning to yourself in learning to do things and 
see what value it is. 


XXIV. “MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS” 


We like to use our imagination when we read. We like 
to think of the description of Tom Thumb’s dress: 

“An oak’s leaf he wore for a crown, 

His shirt was made of thistle down, 

His vest was of web that spiders spin, 

His suit was made of butterfly wing, 

His stockings were of gossamer, they tie 
With eyelash picked from his mother’s eye. 

His shoes were made of squirrels’ skin, 

Nicely tanned, the hair within.” 

Our imagination keeps us interested in things. When 
we have read a poem we keep trying to get clear pictures of 
its meaning in our minds. In “The Little Sandpiper and 
I” we find “sullen cloud,” and at once our imagination 
goes to work to picture what a sullen cloud is. 

We learn to be a good ball player by picturing in our 
minds how we should play and then practicing to play that 
way. 

Do you know what day dreaming is? It is to imagine 
things as happening that have not and probably will 
never come true. A little day dreaming is good for us. 
But it is best to use our imagination in doing things. We 
should see in our mind’s eye the action in stories and the 
pictures in poems. We should plan gardens and then 
make them. We should make a drawing of a dress or a 
table or something we would like to make. We should use 

114 


“MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS” 115 



The Storm 

What does your imagination tell you? 


J. G. Brown 




n6 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


our hands along with our imagination as often as we can. 
We make our minds rich by what we put in them, and we 
must keep our imagination active to do this. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
What a Poet Wants in the Kingdom of His Mind 

Henry van Dyke has written these lines in a long poem called, 
“God of the Open Air”: 

“ These are the gifts I ask 
Of thee, O Spirit Serene: 

Strength for the daily task, 

Courage to face the road, 

Good cheer to help us bear the traveler’s load, 

And for the hours of rest that come between 
An inward joy in all things heard and seen. 

These are the sins I feign 
Would have Thee take away: 

Malice and cold disdain, 

Hot anger, sullen hate, 

Scorn of the lowly, envy of the great, 

And discontent that casts a shadow gray, 

On all the brightness of the common day. 

These are the things I prize 
And hold of dearest worth: 

Light of the sapphire skies, 

Peace of the silent hills, 

Shelter of forests, comforts of the grass, 

Music of birds, murmurs of rills, 

Shadows of clouds that swiftly pass, 

And after showers 
The smell of flowers, 

And of the good brown earth, — 

And best of all along the way, friendship and mirth.” 


“MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS” 117 

Signs of Intelligence among Birds and Beasts 

One must be a naturalist as Roosevelt was, or a careful scientist 
as the men are who have given many of the facts about nature 
creatures for this book, and spend years observing and studying, 
before he can have an understanding of the animal mind. It seems 
to take forethought on the part of the caterpillar to fasten its 
cocoon, yet we know that it is done because all of its kind do it by 
instinct. The opossum is on the whole a stupid animal. Yet it 
knows how to pose as being dead when in close danger. This is 
largely instinct and but little intelligence. But scientists and 
close observers of animal life find that animals sometimes think 
things out, or seem to do so. 

In one of the animal buildings at the National Zoological Park, 
Washington, D. C., a carpenter was working standing on a plat¬ 
form well toward the ceiling. A chimpanzee was a little below 
him looking on at every movement made. The carpenter dropped 
a glove to the ground floor and that creature went directly after 
it and brought it to him. 

The wolf is notorious for its ability to escape all sorts of devices 
used by those hunting it. Several trappers and hunters seeking 
one wolf for several weeks, failed to find him, though the animal 
was known to be in the region where they sought for it. It some¬ 
how discovered a way to escape every scheme laid for it. 

A Baltimore oriole fastened its nest to two parallel branches of 
a limb instead of at the fork of a branch as is the usual way. A 
storm came and one of the branches sagged so that the nest was 
not held properly. The bird fastened a string around the sagging 
branch, and then fastened it to a branch above, making the nest 
safe as before the storm. 


The 4 -H Clubs 


The boys and girls of the 4-H Clubs have before them a happy 
road, because it is the road of growth, and growth is the first need 


n8 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


of both mind and body. The 4-H’s mean head for clearer thinking, 
heart for greater loyalty, hands for larger service, and health for 
better living. This likewise is the road to the Kingdom of the Mind. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Does the picture on page 115 give you a story? What 
is it? 

2. Describe an instance when your imagination proved most 
useful to you. 

3. How many different ways of using the imagination are 
named in the lesson? 

4. Name several things that you enjoy doing and see what 
part your mind plays in doing each. 

5. How do we train our imaginatidns? 

6. What do we do because our minds grow hungry? 

7. How may we improve our minds? 

8. Make a list of all the poet asks to have. 

9. Why does he want strength? courage? good cheer? 

10. How many things does he prize and hold of dearest worth? 

11. What do you prize other than what the poet has mentioned? 


XXV. HOW WE FORM HABITS 


Our nervous system helps us to form habits. Have you 
noticed how a small child keeps saying a word it has heard 
over and over again like a bird singing its song? Have you 
noticed in marching that when you are once in step you 
keep in step easily? To keep repeating what we do is the 
way to teach the nervous system. 

When you get up in the morning you see your shoes and 
put them on without thinking much about what you are 
doing. Morning after morning you have put on your 
shoes since you learned how to dress yourself. When on a 
certain occasion we do a certain thing, we are likely to do 
the same thing each time we have the occasion to do it. 
When we always do this same thing we have a habit. 
Such habits save us time. We should do as much by 
habit as we can. Do you knowhow much you do by habit? 

Some wise people have discovered the habit law. It 
tells us how to form habits. Here it is: 

1. Learn how to do a thing and do it. 

2. Each time you repeat do it as before. 

3. Every time the occasion comes for you to do the 
thing, do it. 

Trace a habit you have formed to its beginning and see if 
you can tell how you formed it. 

Have you ever thought how wonderful it is that your 
nervous system will let you form habits? If it did not, 


120 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


we should spend nearly all day dressing ourselves, eating, 
and getting ready for bed again. We should not be able 
to write a composition without thinking of each word as 
we wrote it. We should never learn our number tables 
well enough to be promoted in arithmetic. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

A Boy Discovers the Great Law in Forming Habits 

Ned was fourteen years old, and a member of the school basket¬ 
ball team and garden club. No one among his circle was as busy 
doing things as he. But it was his way to be hoeing in the garden 
when the ball team practiced, or else studying his lessons before 
sundown and working in the garden at dusk. He was always 
behind time, though always in a hurry. Always blaming himself, 
yet persisting and trying again. 

A county agricultural agent came to live in his home. It took 
this trained man only a little while to discover Ned’s fault. He 
did not say what he thought aloud, because he knew something 
better to do. He wrote down everything Ned did for two days. 
Then he made out a program for Ned to follow in doing his work. 
On the third day he said, “Ned, let’s see how it would be to fol¬ 
low this program,” and gave him a piece of paper on which was 
written a set time for doing everything. For two months Ned fol¬ 
lowed the plans made by his new friend. Sometimes it was an¬ 
noying to have to do each thing as it was due to be done. But 
that was the rule of the game, as his leader explained. Then it 
became easy to do. By never failing once for a long while to do 
his tasks promptly, he had a new habit of work altogether. 

Animals Learn Habits 

Farm animals soon learn to come at regular feeding time to the 
place where they are fed. It is by habits that most animals 


HOW WE FORM HABITS 


121 


learn tricks. The trainer teaches an animal to do a certain thing 
on a certain occasion. When he wants it to do the trick he makes 
the occasion the same as before, and soon it does it by habit. At 
the circus is frequently a pony that will paw so many times for 
no and so many for yes. The trainer gives it a signal that it 
understands. It is usually one the onlookers do not observe. 

But not all animals can be trained to such habits, for that is 
what the tricks they do are. Animal trainers in selecting animals 
for training try to find those that will give attention. If they 
cannot get this, their efforts are usually wasted. 

Because of fear, an animal may not learn new habits. At the 
National Zoological Park in Washington, D. C., there is a hyena 
that has for two years refused to go out into the yard behind its 
stall. The yard is for its use only and has a high fence around it. 
Once the keeper put it out, but that did not convince the hyena 
that going into the yard was the thing to do. It has never of its own 
accord ventured out. As one passes around this building he may 
notice the plot of ground around its home is covered with high 
grass and the rest of the yards are worn bare. Whether it fears a 
trap or something else no one knows. 

Habit and instinct make up nearly the whole life of the animal. 
It learns a new habit by giving attention and doing a thing often, 
just as people do. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Is it natural for us to form habits? Why? 

2. What is the habit law? Give an example showing its use. 

3. What is a habit? 

4. Name each part of the habit law. 

5. How do you learn to spell by the habit law? Can you state 
this law as it applies in making number tables into habits? 

6. Does the habit law require us to practice? When we 
practice doing what we have done before what care should we take? 

7. When do we do a thing by habit? 


XXVI. SEVEN IMPORTANT HABITS 

This lesson is not on habits of the body. It is on hab¬ 
its that become a part of our nature. Here are seven 
important ones: 

1. Courage. 

2. Helpfulness to others. 

3. Thrift. 

4. Industry. 

5. Honesty. 

6. Cheerfulness. 

7. Trustworthiness. 

Sometimes we speak of these as qualities of our nature 
or qualities of character. The following illustrations tell 
what such qualities let us do: 

- A boy was lost in a snowstorm. He became so cold 
that his legs and feet were stiff and numb. He wanted to 
lie down in the snow and give up. But he kept searching 
for shelter. At last he found it. His courage saved him. 

A girl grew a garden, and then gave her mother all the 
vegetables she wanted for the family table. That was 
helpfulness. 

She canned what remained and marketed them. The 
money was saved for something she needed. That was 
thrift. 

A boy who delivers morning newspapers gets up every 
morning at half-past four and at five o’clock begins his 


122 


SEVEN IMPORTANT HABITS 


123 


work. This is industry. (Of course, it is not necessary 
for every one to begin work so early in order to be indus¬ 
trious.) 

A groceryman was forgetting to charge for one article a 
girl had bought. She pulled the article from the bag to 
show it to him. Her honesty made her do it. 

A woman, who, on limited means, must provide for 
several small children, takes the greatest care to spend 
every cent wisely. No time is wasted worrying over the 
lack of luxuries. Although they are very poor, they are 
cheerful, for they make the most of what they have. That 
is the best kind of cheer. Another woman who also has 
limited means, and children to care for, does not spend 
wisely. She and her children buy luxuries one week and 
the next week have nothing left to live on. Accordingly 
they are cheerful at one time and despondent and full of 
worry at another. They have not learned the best way 
to have real cheer. 

A boy was taking a telegram to the station for a neighbor. 
As he passed along the street he saw a wrestling match. 
He wanted to stop and watch it. But his neighbor wanted 
the telegram to go at once. The boy did not stop. He 
was trustworthy. 

The qualities that become fixed in our natures are the 
ones we keep practicing. We make them habits. 

Our natures hunger for exercise as our bodies do. An 
honest man likes to be honest when circumstances tempt 
to dishonesty. An athlete once said that he liked to make 
his nature do things just as he did his body. In jumping 


124 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


he made his body turn as he wanted it to while he was in 
the air. But if he lost the contest he cheered and 
applauded the winner joyfully. His nature is as finely 
exercised as his body. 

The seven habits named above will give us natures we 
can trust. We can develop these qualities by using them 
every time we have a chance. We show our honesty in 
a ball game. We show courage and cheerfulness there 
too. Every day we use some of these qualities in one way 
or another. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Why We Like the Story of “Honest Abe” 

There is a story — a true one — told of how, early in his life, 
Lincoln came to be known as “Honest Abe.” 

While clerking at Offut’s store at New Salem, Illinois, he sold 
a woman a bill of goods amounting in value by the reckoning to 
two dollars, six and a quarter cents. Before leaving the store that 
evening Lincoln discovered that he had taken six cents too much. 
He closed the store and in the dark started out on foot a distance 
of two or three miles to the house of the customer and gave her the 
sum owed. 

If he had waited to return the money until the customer came 
again, no “Honest Abe” story would have come from the incident, 
for it would not have shown how his ideal for being honest would 
not let him wait. 


One Dollar Saved Each Week 

A man when his first child was born put one dollar in a bank 
to be saved for his young son. Some one said, “And you will do 
this every week?” He answered, “Yes,” though he hardly saw 


SEVEN IMPORTANT HABITS 


125 


how he could do it. That “Yes” made him determined to save 
the dollar the next week. He did! At last it became easier to 
save it. Then another child came, and in a few years another. 
The man could not then save a dollar for each of these, but he 
kept on saving the one dollar. 

As the years passed the family had more means, but this one 
dollar was still put in the bank apart from the other money. 

When each child was twenty-one years of age, each received 
$500 from the dollar-a-week savings. Though the family had 
some wealth, it happened that this savings account was the only 
ready money they had to give each son when he became twenty- 
one. 

The father says that his plan was the best medicine his mind 
could have. That one habit made him feel thrifty and respectable. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What habits are listed in the lesson? 

2. Name some ways for a child to be thrifty. 

3. One of the scout laws is that one shall be trustworthy. 
Show what that means. 

4. How do we build honesty and other qualities into our 
nature? 

5. Tell in your own words why we like the “Honest Abe” 
story. 

6. Saving a dollar a week, how much money did the father 
have from the account after twenty-one years? The second child 
was four years younger than the first. How much money from 
the $1.00 a week savings was there when he became twenty-one? 
The third child was four years younger than the second. How 
much money was there when he was twenty-one? 

7. The money had been drawing interest, compounded yearly. 
Have an eighth-grade pupil figure out what the father had left 
after he had given the third son his $500. 


XXVII. WHY GROWING BOYS AND GIRLS SHOULD 

NOT SMOKE TOBACCO OR USE TEA OR COFFEE 

While our bodies are growing they do double work. 
They keep themselves in repair and get bigger too. This 
is made harder because the parts do not all grow big 
together. For example, the heart grows fast at one time, 
and its arteries at another. Our nervous system is taxed 
to keep things going right. 

While our bodies are growing in this way, they are 
easily harmed. Some organs are easily overworked. All 
the parts are tender. It is easy to harm our growing 
bodies. We harm them by work that is too heavy. We 
harm them by sleeping too little. We injure them greatly 
from the drugs in tobacco, tea, and coffee. What might 
do little harm when our bodies are full grown and have 
gained their strength, does much harm while they are 
growing. Nerve cells, especially the nerve cells of the 
brain, are poisoned by the nicotine in tobacco. Many of 
the organs of the body are harmed by this poison. But 
the brain is likely to be injured most of all. 

We can not know how great the damage will be from 
smoking habits formed while we are yet growing. We 
can not know how much harm may come from drinking 
tea and coffee. If our nervous system is excitable, coffee 
and tea have a chance to cause much harm. We can not 
tell how strong our desire for any of these may become. 

126 


HARMFUL HABITS 


127 


We take a risk that we can not measure when we teach 
our growing bodies to want to smoke, or to drink coffee, 
and tea. 

We do not want to burden our bodies with poisons. 
We do not want them to have strong desires for what is 
harmful to their best growth. We do not want to spoil 
the sleep and rest and activity they need. We can save 
them from these dangers by letting tobacco, tea, and 
coffee alone all the years our bodies are growing and 
gaining their strength. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
Something to Think About 

1. In six American colleges, the smoker and the non-smoker 
have been compared, to see which passes best the test for joining 
the football teams. To make a football team, a man must show 
that he can play football well. It has been found that men who 
smoke are about half as likely to pass the test as the men who do 
not smoke. 

2. In the same six American colleges it was found that the 
lungs of the men who smoke cannot breathe as much air as the 
lungs of the men who do not smoke. 

3. In twelve American colleges the smokers and non-smokers 
have been compared to see how well they learn. It has been 
found that there are more low grades among smokers than among 
non-smokers. 

Tiny Dogs for Sale 

A man living in Paris, France, who raised and sold dogs, found 
that the small dog was more in demand than dogs of normal size. 
Soon he had very tiny dogs for his customers, who paid him high 
prices for them. To one inquiring how he grew the dwarfs he con- 


128 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


tided his secret. “You see I put a little speck of nicotine in their 
food when they are quite young. Then I put in a little more, and 
then they never get big.” 

The customers did not know of the little dogs who were killed 
by this poison, nor those sickly and unfit to sell. They only saw the 
dogs which had been strong enough to survive and appear well, 
but without their normal growth. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why do our body-machines have more work to do while we 
are growing? 

2. Do all parts of the body grow evenly? Give an example to 
illustrate your answer. 

3. Why are poisons so bad for us while we are growing? 

4. How do we form habits of smoking? of drinking tea or 
coffee? 

5. How may such habits harm us? What are special dangers 
in forming such habits? 

6. What harm may one expect from tobacco smoking? 

7. What kind of nervous system should not have tea or 
coffee? 

8. What does the supplementary reading called “Something 
to Think About” make you think? 


XXVIII. SAFETY FIRST 


Have you not seen the “Safety First” sign? Through¬ 
out the nation its appeal has gone. It is to remind people 
that they should take care and prevent accidents. 

Do you know there are hundreds of lives lost and 
thousands made cripples each year by accidents? 

Many of these can be prevented. People need not 
light matches near a leaky gas pipe, or keep poisons in 
unlabeled bottles where they will be mistaken for 
medicine, or leave rubbish in the basement which may 
catch fire, or drive automobiles carelessly, or cross 
railroad tracks and electric car tracks without looking and 
listening, or put their hands on electric wires, or step from 
street cars while they are moving, or do many other 
things without giving attention. 

People should be thoughtful for the safety of others. 
An engineer in charge of the building of a bridge and 
engineers running a locomotive should keep everything 
safe for the workmen and for the public. Dairymen 
should not let milk be sold from diseased cows. Health 
officers should test, from time to time, milk sold to the 
public to see that it is safe. 

Children should be thoughtful for their own safety. 
Children playing on the streets or walking to and from 
school should be on the lookout for vehicles, especially 
those coming from alleys and unexpected places. When 

129 


i 3 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

playing in open fields and vacant lots they should remove 
sharp sticks that might fly up, boards with nails in them, 
and sharp stones on which they might step or fall. 

In our world with its many inventions, its factories, 
and cities and towns, accidents will occur often unless 
every one helps to prevent them. But if we all help, 
there will not be nearly so many. 

It is not natural for us to be on the lookout for these 
dangers. They are not natural dangers. Therefore we 
have to teach ourselves to be careful. 

How different it is with birds and animals. Their 
dangers are natural ones, and by instinct they are all the 
time trying to escape them. A bird builds its nest where 
its enemies can not destroy it, or else it stands by ready 
to protect it. Nature often gives animals a coloring that 
protects them against enemies. The New England hare 
has a brownish fur in summer and a white fur in winter. 

Civilized man no longer has natural enemies as the 
wild life has. But he finds dangers from his own 
handiwork. Nature does not protect him from these. 
He must train himself to be careful. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

A Few Illustrations of Safety First in the Nature World 

Among Worms and Moths 

The caterpillar with a green coloring so like its surroundings is 
very much liked by birds. But birds do not find it easily. 
The caterpillar whose body has rich bands of red and black does 
not need protective coloring, for birds and insect-eating creatures 
do not like it. 



SAFETY FIRST 


* 131 

The puss moth protects itself against flies that would lay their 
eggs on its body. It throws out a poison that kills them. 

Among Birds 

Let a canoe approach a wild duck and her young, and the young 
ducks will go swiftly away, at right angles to the direction of the 
boat, while the mother duck will swim and flap her wings along¬ 
side or a little in front of the boat until the young are quite safe. 
Then she will herself escape. 

The weaver bird builds its nest far out on a limb and usually 
over a body of water. It covers the nest over and then builds a 
long neck extending out beyond the reach of a monkey. It enters 
the nest through this neck. 

A grouse hen and her young have coloring so much like their 
surroundings that if one loses sight of them for a minute, he is not 
likely to find them. 

When the eggs of a water rail were hatching, a man with the 
kindest intentions threw parts of the shells from the nest while 
the mother water rail was away. When she returned she feared 
danger and did not rest until one by one she had removed birds 
and eggs. 

Little birds in their nest will stop their chirp, chirp, chirp, if 
they hear the parent bird give a note of warning. They have 
never experienced the danger, so they do it by instinct. 

Among Animals 

It is commonly observed how the opossum pretends he is dead 
when in the presence of an enemy from which he cannot at once 
escape. 

The American wooly opossum carries her young on her back. 
Her tail is arched up and each baby opossum curls its tail around 
the mother’s tail. She walks out on the limb of a tree bearing 
this burden. 

The coloration of animals like that of birds protects them. A 


i 3 2 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 

deer can hardly be seen in its natural haunts. The chipmunk 
living in the “bad lands” of South Dakota where the plant growth 
is sparse is of a light yellowish color. The same kind of chipmunk 
living in the heavily wooded sections of northern Wisconsin wears 
dark brown colors. In Montana where the vegetation is neither 
so sparse as in South Dakota nor so heavily wooded as northern 
Wisconsin, its coloring is between the light and the dark described 
above. 

The rabbit’s sense of hearing lets him know of danger. This 
is true of the deer too. 

Safety Essay 

By Stanley Newcomb, San Diego, California, 

Pupil and Boy Scout, Best out of 400,ooo. 1 

An essay by Stanley Newcomb, 14-year-old San Diego, Cali¬ 
fornia, school boy and Boy Scout, was chosen as the best of more 
than 400,000 submitted by elementary school pupils in a national 
safety essay contest conducted by the Highway Education Board. 
Stanley Newcomb’s essay follows: 

How I Can Make the Highways More Safe 

Mars, the mythical God of War, has until recently been regarded 
as the foremost aid to the grim reaper, “Death.” It is generally 
conceded that the results of his activities are now surpassed by 
the increasing and alarming toll of life caused by automobile 
accidents. 

People throughout the land are awaking to the fact that we are 
facing a great national problem. “What I can Do to Make the 
Highways More Safe” is a subject which should receive serious 
consideration by every one. Applied personally, I am such a small 
speck of humanity in this great world that at first it seems pre¬ 
sumptuous to imagine that I can be of assistance, but on further 

*By courtesy of Mr. Stephen James, Highway Education Board, 
Willard Building, Washington, D. C. 


SAFETY FIRST 


133 


consideration it occurs to me that if all the little specks, chil¬ 
dren from coast to coast, will earnestly discuss the matter with 
their parents, teachers and companions, and will take the precau¬ 
tionary measures to prevent accidents, it will greatly aid in de¬ 
creasing the number of automobile injuries and fatalities. 

Each year statistics are compiled, comparing the number of 
deaths from automobile accidents in ratio with the population of 
each city and town. Every death occurring in our city as a result 
of an automobile accident brings us that much higher on the 
“horror list.” We do not want our city or “home town” pointed 
out as a place where there is no respect for law or traffic rules, 
where the people do not use common sense to safeguard themselves 
and others from untimely and terrible death. 

To do my bit I therefore resolve to offer my assistance whenever 
I see a small child, or an aged, blind or feeble person hesitatingly 
attempt to cross a street or highway. I will also take necessary 
precautions at all times for my own safety, and will caution my 
companions, whenever the opportunity presents itself, as follows: 

Do not cross the street in the middle of the block, nor cut 
obliquely across a thoroughfare. Cross only at the corners and 
then at right angles. 

At the intersection of two streets, look not only to the right 
and left of the street you are crossing, but watch for approaching 
vehicles coming around the corner from the intersecting street. 

Never step out from behind a street car or a vehicle that has 
passed until you have glanced in each direction to see that the 
path you are about to cross is clear. Also, in alighting from street 
cars look to the right and left before proceeding to the curb. 

When about to cross a thoroughfare do not mentally estimate 
your rate of speed in comparison with that of an oncoming vehicle, 
and take a chance on crossing before it reaches you. 

Do not play football, marbles, or use roller skates or coasters 
on the streets or highways. 

When riding bicycles give necessary hand signals to advise auto- 


134 


HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


ists behind you of your intention to turn corners or slow down 
and do not hang on to street cars or motor vehicles. 

When hiking on country highways keep on the left of the road 
as near to the right edge as possible. Keep your ears trained to 
hear any warning “honks” behind you. 

When nearing street car or railroad crossings in automobiles, 
on bicycles, or on foot, do not laugh or engage in loud conversa¬ 
tion, making the approach of an oncoming car or train inaudible. 

In short, “Never take a chance; be sure you’re safe, then go 
ahead.” 


Helps in Learning Safety First 

1. When a stairway is steep, a floor polished, a piece of ground 
slippery — notice these facts, and take care. 

2. When using machinery keep arms and legs from getting too 
near. Keep the head away. 

3. Have proper habits as regards street crossings and railway 
tracks. Keep hands and feet from electric wires. 

4. In using tools be careful. 

5. Have caution when using matches and do not strike them 
where there is gas, gasoline or other easily inflammable substance. 

6. Learn how to send in a fire alarm at the fire alarm box and 
by telephone. Practice in an imaginary way until you are sure 
you will make no mistake. 

7. Be willing to obey orders exactly and at once in a fire drill. 
That is what makes them valuable. If there is a fire, obey as be¬ 
fore. That is how your own life and the lives of your companions 
will be saved. 

8. Be sure that bottles containing poisons are marked and put 
out of the way. 

9. Blow out a lamp when it is no longer needed. Do not 
turn it down and leave it so. 

10. Be careful of fire when using candles and keep fire away 
from kerosene or gas. Use kindling to start a fire — not kerosene. 


SAFETY FIRST 


I 35 

11. Do not shoot unloaded guns ever — for they are frequently 
not unloaded but loaded. 

12. Find the Safety First care that you should take and be as 
perfect in it as possible. 


QUESTIONS 

1. Mention accidents that commonly occur around you and 
which could be prevented. 

2. Mention others that occur less frequently. 

3. Name all the precautions for public safety you find in your 
community. 

4. Name precautions you take. 

5. Describe sorrfe Safety First habits. 

6. Tell of situations where one’s own safety is in the hands 
of others. 

7. When is the safety of others in your hands? 


XXIX. FIRST AID 


First Aid is the care given to the injured before the 
services of a doctor may be had. 

In our study we have discovered over and over again 
that we can learn to do things, and that we can have good 
bodies. We*do not want these just to be happy ourselves, 
but so that we can be helpful to others as well. We should 
be a good neighbor and a helpful companion in a case of 
emergency. 

We can not be helpful by just wishing to be. When one 
is injured we are helpful if we know how to do the right 
thing. We should know how to do the right thing in the 
right way. 

Doctors have learned what is best to do when a person 
is shocked, when he faints, when he has been near drown¬ 
ing, or has been poisoned. They have learned that pus 
and inflammation around wounds comes from microbes 
which have got into the open cut. They have found how 
best to keep these dangerous microbes away. 

Many things have been discovered in the science of 
medicine about the care of the injured. A doctor can 
not always be secured immediately. We must therefore 
learn to give service, for we do not want to be sympa¬ 
thetic and yet not be able to do the right thing. 

We can not learn First Aid without practice. We can 
not learn it from reading in a book. We must practice 

1.^6 


FIRST AID 


i37 


what we read in make-believe cases until we are sure we 
know how to do the right thing We can not learn 
all of First Aid until we are older. In the Appendix 
of the next higher book in this series are First Aid 
Practices to learn. We should practice them. Unless 
we do, we may harm some one in trying to help him. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

How First Aid as It Is Known To-day Began 

A little more than seventy years ago, when Florence Nightingale 
was a young woman thirty years old, a trained nurse informed on 
the proper care of a patient was hardly to be thought of. Miss 
Nightingale wanted to be a nurse like the best nurses of to-day. 

What put the idea into her head, her family and friends could 
not imagine. Indeed, they only thought of the unclean ignorant 
nurses that they knew. The idea was really put into her heart 
first, for in visiting a London hospital for soldiers she had been 
greatly aroused by the sight of the dirty surroundings and unwhole¬ 
some care. 

There was a school in Germany where women could receive 
training as nurses. It was an orphan asylum, a penitentiary, a 
school for teachers, and a small hospital. Here Miss Nightingale 
studied. Later she assisted in caring for orphans among the poor of 
Paris, and received further training by nursing in hospitals. Then 
she returned to London and was in charge of a hospital for women. 

Because her family was wealthy and had a wide acquaintance, 
her new field of work was noticed more than it might have been 
otherwise. Even so, no one knew what great power lay within her. 
Soon all of England learned this. 

The Crimean war came. France, England, and Turkey fought 
against Russia. News reached London that in one place two 
thousand wounded men were in hospitals not prepared to care for 


138 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


them. Reports said that wounded lay for a week midst mud and 
filth without even having a first dressing and having only stew to 
eat. These reports stirred all England. 

Florence Nightingale, with a group of women from her hospital, 
was sent to Crimea. Gradually the conditions improved. Men 
lay between clean sheets. They wore fresh clothes and ate good 
food. 

After the day’s work was over Miss Nightingale wrote letters 
and reports in which she told what should be done. Her writings 
helped her to gain support for her cause, among people who could 
help. 

It was a person inspired by her work who thought of the idea 
that gave rise to the Red Cross in Europe. Later, Clara Barton, 
one of the women who had served the wounded in our Civil 
War, went to Europe and brought back information about the 
Red Cross, and so the American Red Cross came into being with 
Miss Barton as its first president. 

We cannot make our story longer here and tell more about how 
our modern hospitals, and modern nurses, have attained what 
Florence Nightingale hoped for. She has left her spirit of love 
and desire for the best. Discoveries in the sciences of surgery, 
medicine and cookery have made it possible to have the best. 

Each person in learning First Aid and home care of the sick 
helps to bring the best to everybody. The dream of Florence 
Nightingale lives on. 

A National Contest in First Aid 

In 1915, sixty-eight First Aid teams representing mining com¬ 
panies from all parts of the United States and Mexico met at 
Denver, Colorado. Each team consisted of six men, including a 
captain and some one to act as patient. 

The contests in First Aid continued during two days. Each 
team tried to win in doing most wisely, quickest and best the thing 
told to do. There were judges to decide the winners. 


FIRST AID 


i39 


In the artificial breathing contest eight teams were perfect in 
choosing what to do and in doing it quickly and correctly, and all 
the teams made above ninety on this. In mines it is not in cases 
of drowning that artificial breathing is needed but for miners over¬ 
come by gas. So the patients in this contest were in make-believe, 
unconscious from inhaling gas. In all the other contests there 
were winning teams for first, second and third places. But ex¬ 
cepting these first places sometimes as many as twenty teams tied. 
They were all expert for they had usually won in the contests held 
among the mines of their state before they tried in the national 
contests. 

The men making up the teams were miners who after they had 
learned First Aid had kept in practice exactly as baseball players do. 
They received no pay for this, but their expert ability in First Aid 
let them protect the lives of their fellow workers and that is their 
reward. 

In the contests the teams lose points when a bandage is too 
tight or too loose or in the wrong place or put on too slowly. They 
lose points for failing to treat for shock and for all the mistakes 
they make. 

These contestants and others will soon meet in another contest 
to be held in St. Louis. As these pages are being written, forty 
First Aid teams from mining companies in Virginia are holding 
contests to see who shall go to St. Louis. Is it not an interesting 
way to keep First Aid treatment at its best? 

Life-saving Service 

Each year the Government of our country publishes a report of 
the rescue work done by the Life-saving Service of the United States. 

In stations and lighthouses placed along our seacoasts and 
lakes life-saving crews are found. Many of these men serve for 
years, and risk their lives in rescuing others again and again, for 
no matter how carefully they keep prepared, now and then they 
find it necessary to do what is of great danger. They do it. 


i 4 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


Life-saving crews do not wait idly for occasions to save lives. 
In the life saving along our coast the crews must keep in training 
to meet different emergencies. There are wrecked ships and boats 
to pull in as well as persons to save from drowning. They must 
know rescue work as a doctor knows his line of business. 

Naturally many letters of thanks are received at the Washington 
Headquarters for the services these men render. One such letter 
is copied below: 

Dear Sir: 

A letter of thanks for the services of your life guards 
at Little Egg Harbor Inlet, New Jersey, on the night 
of the nth instant. We left Beachhaven for Atlantic 
City by inside waterway and just as we were near 
Great Bay high seas swamped our boat, stopping our 
engine. We managed to paddle with the crippled boat 
to a near by island. It was five o’clock in the evening. 

The wind was very high and the weather bitterly cold. 

We found some wood and made a fire. The fire at¬ 
tracted the attention of the life-savers of Little Egg 
Station and they came out at once, finding us nearly 
frozen. Had they not come when they did, we would 
have perished that night. There were four of us — 
the Captain, my wife and child and myself. The life- 
savers took us to their station, gave us a change of 
clothing, supper, bed and breakfast. Next morning 
they took us out and saw us safe across Great Bay. 

We want to thank them, through you, for their 
timely service. They saved four lives that night. 

Sincerely yours, 

Joe Garttmier. 

General Superintendent, 1 

Life-saving Service, 

Washington, D. C. 

1 From Annual Report Life-saving Service, 1914. 


FIRST AID 


141 

It is a rule of the service that no rewards be accepted from the 
persons whom the life-savers rescue. 

Instances of Sympathy and Care Shown Among Nature 
Creatures 

Groos tells in his book, The Play of Animals, of a cat that made 
two trips carrying fish bones from the house to the garden where 
a stranger cat was, before he ate his own meal. 

A pack of wolves hunting food together share what they find. 

The dog, when harm comes to his master, frequently goes to 
others and tries to get them to follow him to the place of trouble. 

Ernest Thompson Seton says that an animal in trouble will trust 
itself to the care of another. He tells of an injured moose coming 
to a man not at all in the spirit of fight, but as if it sought help. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why should we learn First Aid? 

2. How do we learn it? 

3. What First Aid have you learned at home or elsewhere? 

4. What did Florence Nightingale do? 

5. How is her work still helping us? 

6. What First Aid practice might you use in a contest? 

7. How do you feel toward the Life-saving Service as described 
in your book? 

8. Tell of persons you know who have risked great danger in 
helping others. 


XXX. GERM DISEASES AND HOW TO PREVENT 
THEM 

We do not want to make our bodies sound and strong, 
and then have them all broken up and weakened by 
diseases. We do not want to lose our lives before we have 
lived half a lifetime. We do not want our playmates to 
be harmed by diseases. We want to keep our mothers 
and fathers. We want small children to be saved from 
having their tender bodies wrecked by measles, whooping 
cough, and scarlet fever. 

We are glad to know that some germ diseases do not do 
half the harm they did several years ago. We are glad 
that these diseases can be prevented. It is good that 
some one discovered vaccination against small pox, for 
it is a dreadful disease. It is good that ways of curing 
tuberculosis have been found. We are glad that since 
the mosquito carries germs of malaria fever, people know 
it, for they can destroy the mosquitoes. 

It is good to think that scientists have discovered anti¬ 
toxin for curing diphtheria, and typhoid vaccine that 
keeps that fever away. It is good that pasteurizing milk 
destroys any disease germs it may have, and that water 
coming from lakes and rivers can be made safe and pure. 

We are glad that in the city there can be good sewage 
pipes which carry away the germs that have come from 
the bodies of persons having diseases. Sewage and wastes 

142 


HOW TO PREVENT GERM DISEASES 143 


in town and country should also be taken care of so 
they will not reach the drinking water and make it 
unsafe. 

We shall be glad when people everywhere have 
protection from diseases. Everybody should have the 


1?U 

’U 

,J\%> 

fa 

* \& 

& 

$ 


Types of Germs 




From left to right, top row: Pus, Tuberculosis, Tetanus; bottom row: 
Pneumonia, Diphtheria, Typhoid. — Highly magnified. 


opportunity to be vaccinated. Anyone who has diph¬ 
theria should be able to get the antitoxin treatment 
quickly. In our country wherever people live they should 
have the best of protection against diseases. We will 
keep our bodies from being wrecked, and many of us will 
live many years longer if we are protected from germ 
diseases. 

















144 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
Facts about Protection of Animals from Diseases 

Gazelles, zebras, and antelopes live in large herds. Lions and 
leopards hunt these animals and feed on them. The diseased ones 
are the easiest caught. If it were not for the leopard and the 
lion, there would be so much disease that it is doubtful whether the 
herds would continue to exist. 

In the same way, herds of buffalo, though preyed upon by the 
wolf and lion, have been saved by them because the weak and the 
diseased are most often killed. 

Herds of domestic animals such as the cow, pig, and sheep are 
protected from diseases in a different way. Cattle are tested for 
tuberculosis and the diseased ones are separated from the others. 
A vaccine against hog cholera will stop this disease, and on several 
occasions in our own country it has saved the loss of thousands of 
hogs. So, too, a vaccine for anthrax has saved large herds of 
sheep. 

Facts about Protection of Plants from Diseases 

A few years ago the citrus trees of Florida were about to be 
destroyed by a germ disease. The growing of the citrus fruit had 
become an important industry of the state and the loss would be 
several millions of dollars. Men in the state and men from the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture kept seeking for a way to stop 
the disease from spreading. But no one had succeeded. They 
could not prune out the diseased parts or cut down the trees 
without spreading the disease germs to other trees. 

At last a man from the State Department of Health proposed 
a plan that proved successful. Dr. Byrd’s idea was to burn the 
diseased twigs and branches. Then no germs reached the healthy 
trees near them, for the tool used in doing this did not spread the 
germs to other parts of the tree as happened when they had tried 
to prune them. 


HOW TO PREVENT GERM DISEASES 145 


There is a quarantine against bringing into this country certain 
kinds of European plants and trees that are diseased. 

It sometimes happens that the soil of cotton fields gets germs 
in it that do not let the cotton plants thrive. 

Germs that cause wheat rust live for a time on other plants, get 
into the soil and later on the growing wheat. 

Disease germs in soils and seeds must be considered by the 
farmer and gardener who want good healthy crops. Much has 
been learned about protecting crops and fruits from diseases. 

Interesting Discoveries and the Benefits They Bring 

The Discoveries of Louis Pasteur 

Louis Pasteur was a Frenchman, living in France. He did his 
important work in the last half of the last century (1850-1900). 
His first work of importance was 
in studying the fermenting of 
wine. This covered twenty years. 

During this time the wine manu¬ 
facturers and wine merchants of 
France were not making a suc¬ 
cess. The wines they shipped 
away soured and had to be re¬ 
turned to them. Pasteur found 
living bodies, microbes, in the 
wine, but he did not say so then. 

It seemed to him better to wait 
until he knew how these tiny 
creatures grew and what their 
habits were. At last he learned, 
and what he learned was the 
secret that saved the wine industry. He found that by controlling 
the temperature of the wine just right and shutting the air away, 
it did not sour and could be shipped long distances. The microbes 
did not grow when this was done. 







i 4 6 health and health practices 


Now, manufacturers of cheese, butter, and vinegar know how to 
make large quantities of these products, and keep them the same 
month after month, because they can control the germs that ripen 
the cheese, sour the milk, and ferment the liquid for vinegar. 
Pasteur’s study of wine has led to discoveries about making but¬ 
ter, cheese, and vinegar. 

His discovery has something to do with a later discovery also. 
This has to do with the prevention of germ diseases. All that is 
known about germ diseases has come from the start made by 
Pasteur. 

He observed that people have certain diseases but once. He 
thought these diseases were caused by living bodies. But he said 
nothing. Instead his next step was to vaccinate chickens against 
cholera, and sheep and cattle against a disease called anthrax. He 
took the cholera germs, heated them to a certain temperature, 
made a vaccine, and put it into the chickens, and they did not 
have cholera. Making a vaccine for anthrax was harder, but he 
succeeded, and thousands of cattle and sheep were saved for the 
French nation. His thinking about the fact that people have 
certain diseases but once, had led him to discover vaccines for 
animal diseases. 

When time came for his knowledge to be used in preventing 
diseases among people, he was most cautious. A mother brought 
to him a little boy who had been so badly bitten and bruised by a 
mad dog that it seemed as if he must die. Pasteur had a treat¬ 
ment, and because doctors advised that the boy would surely die 
if it was not given, he decided to try it. It was done. Pasteur 
stayed by him day and night, so anxious was he. Time passed. 
The boy did not go mad, but recovered. Since then all the civ¬ 
ilized world uses the Pasteur treatment for mad dog bite. 

So great was the ability of Pasteur and so important his dis¬ 
coveries that by many he has been called the greatest man of his 
century. 


HOW TO PREVENT GERM DISEASES 147 


The Discoveries of Doctors Laver an and Ross 

In 1880 when Pasteur was succeeding in his work, another 
Frenchman, Laveran by name, discovered that the blood of a 
malaria patient had millions of germs in it. At first people did not 
believe this, but several years later when the thought of germs 
as the cause of disease did not seem so strange, doctors began to 
believe in Laveran’s discovery. 

In 1895 Dr. Ross, an Englishman, discovered that the malaria 
germ goes through certain stages of growth in the mosquito’s body, 
and then gets into the mosquito’s mouth and when such mos¬ 
quitoes bite a person the malaria germ is given with the bite. To 
test this discovery two Englishmen and an Italian went into a 
marshy part of Italy where most of the people had malaria. By 
using screens they lived there all summer without having malaria, 
though people all around them had the disease. To test the dis¬ 
covery further, an English doctor carried with him to England 
mosquitoes that had bitten malarial patients in Italy. These were 
allowed to bite his own son and another man. In a little more 
than two weeks both took the fever. 

These discoveries have proved of the greatest value in many 
regions of the world. Certain regions of our own country have 
during the last ten years made great strides in getting rid of ma¬ 
laria. They have discovered how to oil streams and pools of water 
so that young mosquitoes cannot grow. The United States Public 
Health Service, the Rockefeller International Health Commission, 
and many of the State Departments of Health, have made cam¬ 
paigns against the spread of this disease. 

History seems to show that malarial fever was one of the causes 
of the downfall of ancient Greece. It is a terrible disease because 
people are left pale and weak by it. The discoveries made about 
the malaria mosquito is a timely one for the present day. But it 
takes constant effort, where malaria mosquitoes thrive and the 
disease has a good start, to make much progress in stopping it. 


XXXI. GERM DISEASES AND HOW TO PREVENT 
THEM ( Continued) 

The discoveries made about germs and germ diseases do 
not by themselves stop the spread of disease. They only 
help us to know what to do. What each of us does either 
checks disease or spreads it. We can keep diseases away 
only by doing the intelligent and the right thing. 

We keep ourselves from colds by not letting our bodies 
get too tired or too chilled or too weak. We keep others 
from having colds by staying away from them as much as 
we can when we have a cold, and by catching our sneezes 
in a handkerchief and not coughing in their faces. 

We can help a great deal in stopping the spread of 
diseases by staying away from school and from other 
children when we have a sore throat, flushed face, watery 
eyes, and other signs that indicate a contagious disease. 
We should not give such diseases to others thoughtlessly, 
for they frequently do great harm to small children and 
sometimes to older ones. 

People who have certain germ diseases are likely to 
leave the germs on whatever touches their lips. We 
should, therefore, be careful. We should not eat at ice¬ 
cream fountains or restaurants where the dishes are not 
scalded after use. We should drink pasteurized milk 
unless we are sure the other is safe. We should not drink 
from wells where sewage reaches them, for typhoid fever 

148 


HOW TO PREVENT GERM DISEASES 


149 


spreads that way. As we can not always tell what drain¬ 
age empties into a shallow well or spring, we should avoid 
using water from such a source as much as possible. 

If we live where there is malarial fever, we should keep 
mosquitoes from us, and help destroy the pools of water 
where they grow. If we live where typhoid fever is 
common, we should keep vaccinated against it. 

We should try to stop the great loss and trouble from 
contagious diseases. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Facts about Conditions that Make it Easy for Creatures of the 
Nature World to Take Disease 

A healthy chicken will hardly take anthrax, but if the fowl is 
made to stand for several hours in cold water, it readily takes it if 
exposed. 

Frogs do not take anthrax easily either, but if kept in a warm 
place they will take it. Frogs thrive best where it is cool. 

Mice also take this disease easily when fatigued but not so 
ordinarily. 

Too much cold, or heat, or fatigue leaves the animals weak and 
so the disease germs gain a good start. 

These results of experiments with animals strengthen the belief 
that exposure to too much heat or cold, or fatigue causes people 
to take germ diseases more easily. 

“Typhoid” Mary 

In studying a group of typhoid cases in Long Island, N. Y., Dr. 
Soper found in a household a cook named Mary. She had not 
been in the employ of the family long, and was at the time sus¬ 
pected of being a carrier of typhoid fever. Her history indicated 


1 5 o HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


that wherever she had been, there had followed cases of the fever. 
The evidence was so strong that when he presented the matter 
to the New York City health authorities with the information that 
she was then employed in New York City, the city health depart¬ 
ment caused her to be taken from her work for examination. She 
was found to have typhoid fever germs in her body. There were 
health laws that permitted the health department to detain her. 
She tried in the courts to secure freedom but was unsuccessful. 
Finally, on her promise not to engage in cooking as an occupation, 
she was released on parole. 

Despite her promise to keep the health authorities informed as 
to her place of employment, she disappeared from view. 

Several years later a group of over twenty cases of typhoid 
fever occurred at about the same time in the Sloane Hospital for 
Women, New York City. On investigation it was found that the 
bacilli had come from eating a dessert prepared by a cook who mean¬ 
time left the hospital. After some detective work, the cook was 
finally discovered living in Long Island and proved to be the same 
cook named Mary who had been paroled by the public health 
officers. In view of the fact that she had deliberately violated her 
parole, and that as a cook she was a constant danger to public 
health, she was ordered into custody again. Repeated examina¬ 
tions showed that she still carried dangerous typhoid germs. 

— As reported by Dr. Bolduan, U- S. Public Health Service. 


XXXII. WE NEED HEALTH DEPARTMENTS AND 
HEALTH OFFICERS IN PREVENTING DISEASES 


When a disease breaks out, some one must take charge 
and tell us what to do. Otherwise, we would do ever so 
many things wrong. We should not know who should 



The Modern Athlete 

A statue by the American sculptor, R. Tait McKenzie 


be under quarantine, or for how long. There would be 
no one to trace the way the disease had traveled and so 
get at its source. We might not know whether the milk 





152 HEALTH AND HEALTH PRACTICES 


or the water were safe, or whether we should be in 
school or at home. Too, there would be no one to keep 
careless persons from doing harm. 

We need to have a health officer to protect us and show 
us how to protect ourselves. He should have intelligent 
and trained men and women to help him. His department 
should be equipped so that he can examine for disease 
germs, keep vaccines or order them, and provide for many 
kinds of emergencies. He should have nurses on whom 
he can call for help when there is need. 

To prevent diseases from spreading is a business in 
itself. We should have an able and intelligent health 
officer at the head of this business. He will be able to 
prevent diseases before many know they are present, and 
in a sudden outbreak, he will know how to manage, and 
stop the trouble quickly. We can not be properly 
protected from germ diseases without health officers and 
good health departments. 


APPENDIX 


GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 

A. Rough and Ready Games 

Chain Tug of War 

The two teams form chains by grasping each other around the 
waist. The two leaders grasp a stick that they hold in a hori¬ 
zontal position parallel to a line on the ground until the signal to 
start is given. At the signal “GO” the two teams pull until all 
of the players of one side are pulled across the line. 

— Angell’s Play. 

Leapfrog 

(2 to 100 players,! 

The first player makes a back, standing either with his back or 
his side toward the one who is to leap over. The next player 
runs, leaps over the back, runs a few steps forward so as to allow 
space for a run between himself and the first player, and in his 
turn stoops over and makes a back. This makes two backs. The 
third player leaps over the first back, runs and leaps over the sec¬ 
ond, runs a short distance and makes a third back, etc., until all 
the players are making backs, when the first one down takes his 
turn at leaping, and so on indefinitely. 

Variation: This may be made much more difficult by each 
player moving only a few feet in advance of the back over which 
he has leaped, as this will then leave no room for a run between the 
backs, but means a continuous succession of leaps by the succeeding 
players. 

— Bancroft’s Games for Gymnasium, Home, Playground, and School. 

Copyright by the Macmillan Co. 


153 


i54 


APPENDIX 


B. Team Ball Games 

Dodge Ball 1 

This becomes exciting as the players on one side try to win from 
the other side in a limited time. 

Play Space: A circle 30 feet in diameter. 

Ball: A large hollow ball, or basket or volley ball. 

Game: Two teams of about equal strength. One team is within 
the large circle. The other team is divided into two groups that 
stand opposite each other along the edge of the circle. They 
throw the ball back and forth along any part of the circle, but not 
stepping inside. The object is to hit the players within the circle. 
When a player is hit, he is out, and leaves the circle. This game 
can be made as lively as boys and girls want to make it. Ac¬ 
curate throwing and quick action make the game the more inter¬ 
esting. 

Catch Basket 1 

The class stands in a circle around the room, each half con¬ 
stituting a team with a leader at one end. On a desk in the center 
of the room is placed a waste-paper basket. The game consists 
in throwing a bean bag or a ball (a large, light gas ball preferable) 
into the basket, the teams alternating their turns. There is no 
interference but an umpire stands in the center who returns the 
ball to the next player after each throw. The leaders throw first, 
and each player in turn thereafter. Each time the ball lodges in 
the basket it scores one for the team throwing. A bean bag on 
the edge of the basket scores as a goal. A player may throw but 
once at each turn. The game may be limited by time, the team 
winning which has the highest score at the end of 10 or 15 minutes; 
or it may end when each player has had a turn. The former 
method leads to quicker and more expert play, which should be 
encouraged. 

1 From Course in Physical Training for Grades I to VI for State of New Jersey. 


GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 155 


C. Performances Measured or Timed 

Throwing 

Shall it be the hand ball, slung from the arm, or the large hollow 
ball, with a push-throw straight from the shoulder, or what requires 
more skill yet, the throw made with a crouch and a final spring? 



Wide World Photos 

Hurling the Baseball 


This college girl made a new record in sending the ball a distance 
of 224 ft., 2 }4 

The baseball throw described above is the sling throw, the basket¬ 
ball throw is from the shoulder. In throwing for distance, do not 
fail to consider the size and weight of the ball. 

Baseball Throw for Accuracy (Boys and Girls) 

1. Make two parallel lines of equal length thirty feet apart. 
Let players in groups of four stand close together on one line, 
the groups being three feet apart. Let the thrower stand on the 



156 


APPENDIX 


opposite line, call out the name of the player to whom he will throw 
the ball and stand directly opposite to this player. In three 
throws, see how many are accurate. Another now becomes 
thrower. The test continues in this Way. 

2. Throw a hand ball toward a very small circle on a frame 
30 feet away. The small circle is within three or four larger circles. 
Name a score of 20 for the tiny circle, and then name scores for 
each of the larger circles, the largest circle having the smallest 
score. Let each player see how many scores he can make with 
three throws. 

A Hop and a Leap Step 

(Boys or Girls) 

This time hop over the paper (making it narrower if necessary). 
To do this, keep the rear foot in the rear and spring forward on the 
foot that landed at the edge of the paper. Then quickly make 
a leap step, bringing rear foot forward and continue to run for a 
few steps. 

Standing Hop, Step and Jump 

(Boys) 

Stand with both feet on the take-off and swing the arms for the 
start. Just as the final forward swing is being made lift one foot 
so the “hop” is taken from one foot only. Land on the same foot 
from which the spring was made, take a long step with the other 
foot, and finish with a big leap, landing on both feet. Do not 
slow up in speed between the hop, the step and the jump. 

Throw Weights and Jump 

(Boys) 

Hold a stone in each hand, swing the arms back and forth to 
get a good spring, then throw the weights and jump. Take care 
that this is not done where there is danger of anyone being hit by 
the stones. 


GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 


i57 


Standing Broad Jump 

(Boys) 

Soften the earth at the place of jumping; make a sand pit if 
possible. Make a solid place for the start. Have a well-marked 
toe line. Have other lines parallel to it and a foot apart so the 
jump can be easily measured. When making the spring aim to go 
high as well as forward. Keep a record to see what the gain is 
from month to month. Five to six and one-half feet is a passing 
record for a healthy boy io to 12 years old. 

A Victory Leap 

(Boys or Girls) 

Most of the group stand in two parallel lines several feet apart, 
as spectators. One or more players whom the leader has chosen 
step to the open space between. A phonograph record is played; 
the music is some military selection that incites to victory. Polon¬ 
aise Militaire is such a record. The players selected reach the 
right arm forward and slightly upward, then leap forward, leap 
after leap, the head up and eye following the hand. Others are 
chosen. The game may be played until all take part in it. 

The Hop, Step and Jump Parade 

(Boys or Girls) 

In this, two lines are formed again. Those who know how to 
hop, leap and jump go to the open space between. The leader 
gives directions and they follow them. Other players join the 
parade as they are able to follow the directions. 

Running Broad Jump 

(Boys) 

The length of run is unlimited. In a contest each competitor 
is allowed three jumps; the five best are allowed three more 
jumps. Winner may have three more jumps for a record. 


APPENDIX 



158 

The take-off may be an 8' by 8' timber about four feet long 
buried until the upper face is on level with the ground. In front 
of the scratch line for about four inches the ground should be 
kept sprinkled with sand, in order to detect stepping over. The 
take-off should be painted white or otherwise made conspicuous. 
Measurements shall be made perpendicularly from the front edge 
of the take-off to the nearest point where the body touches the 
ground. The landing area should be of loose dirt and raked 
smooth after each trial. 

Stepping over the take-off shall constitute a trial. 

D. Running 

There are three things we should especially note in good running. 
First there is one spring following another. Second, the legs 


Wide World Photos 

Winning the Fifty-yard Dash 

swing straight forward and back. Motions to the side take away 
from the speed. Third, after good rhythm is gained, speed in¬ 
creases, and the running is faster toward the end of a run than at 
the beginning. 







GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 


i59 


Walking and Running 

(Boys or Girls) 

Find a good walking stride. Walk until you are well in the 
rhythm of it, then change to running and after a few paces back 
again to walking. Practice this from time to time. 

Relay Races 

Be ready to start. Do not run too fast at first, then increase 
your speed. 

Potato Race 

(Boys and Girls separately 1 ) 

Runner starts from basket, brings in one block and drops it in 
the basket; he brings in the second and touches the basket, replaces 
on the mark the second block, gets the first out of the basket and 
replaces that on the mark and returns — his time being taken as he 
crosses the line. In case a block does not fall into the basket, the 
runner is not required to return and pick it up; he is however 
charged for a “foul.? 

The older and faster runners have the basket and starting line ten 
feet farther back from the first block. 

To cross the finish line within 42 seconds after the signal to start 
is a good record for a girl. The marks holding the blocks may 
be made distinct with paint. To make this run in good time the 
players should have rubber-soled shoes. 

Potato Race Relay 

This is played as described above, only there are two teams. 
F°ch. team has its own starting line and marks. The players of 

1 After plan given in Reilly’s New Rational Athletics. 

Basket 
Starting Line 
24 feet (block) 

8 feet (block) 

Goal 


i6o 


APPENDIX 


each team stand in line, one behind the other, the foremost being 
beside the basket. At a given signal the first player of each team 
starts; as each finishes another player starts. The runners who 
have made the run go to the rear end of the line. The team that 
finishes first wins. 

Simple Relay 

(Boys and Girls together or separately) 

Here is one of the easiest of relay races: 

At a given signal first runner of each team starts, runs to and 
around a circle and returns touching the outstretched hand of next 
runner, who then makes the run as the first runner did and touches 
the hand of the next runner, so the runs are made until all have 
taken part. The runners as they finish go to the rear of the line. 
The game is finished when the last player returns and touches the 
hand of first runner, who is again at the front. The team who 
finishes first wins. 

Hurdle Relay 

(Boys and Girls separately) 

In the Hurdle Relay the teams shall be lined up exactly as for 
the Simple Relay and the manner of running the race shall be the 
same, except that there shall be from one to three hurdles (accord¬ 
ing to the length of the course) for each pupil to jump over during 
the run. 

The distance of a hurdle from the start or finish line shall be 
thirty feet and if more than one hurdle is used they shall be placed 
twenty-five feet apart. When one hurdle is used, the running 
distance must be 60 feet; when two are used, 85 feet; when three 
are used, no ft. Hurdles shall not be less than 18 inches nor more 
than two feet high. 


GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 161 


Square Relay 

Number of Players: Three to twelve or more on a team. 

Equipment: Two balls or bean bags. 

Place four objects from 15 to 30 feet apart in the form of a 
square like a baseball diamond. In these rules the bases are let¬ 
tered a , b, c , d around the diamond. Team I lines up single file 
back of point a. Team II lines up single file back of point c, with 
sufficient space between the teams and the bases to allow the run¬ 
ners to pass outside of the bases freely. 

Each leader holds a ball. On the signal to start the leader of 
Team I starts running around and outside of points b, c, d, back to 
a , and hands ball to second runner of his team. Leader of Team 
II starts running around outside of points d, a, b, back to c, and 
hands ball to second runner, etc. The team wins whose leader 
first receives the ball into his hands after all members of the team 
have run. 

Variations: 1. A runner of Team I may throw the ball to the 
next runner of his team at any point between d and a , and a runner 
of Team II may throw from any point between b and c. If, how¬ 
ever, a wild throw is made by the runner and the ball rolls into 
or beyond the square between points a, b, and c and d, the next 
runner must secure the ball and return to his starting point and 
encircle or include points a or c in his run. All four points must be 
included in the course. Failure to do so constitutes a foul. (See 
Scoring for All-up Relay — Bancroft, page 45.) 

2. Walk with ball and hand to next runner. 

3. Walk with ball and throw ball to next runner. 

4. Walk backward with ball and hand to next runner. 

5. Walk backward with ball and throw to next runner. 

— Manual Physical Education , Public Schools of California. 


162 


APPENDIX 


E. Stunts Old and New 

Pulling Sticks 1 

Two sit upon the floor, toes against toes. A broom handle is 
grasped by the players and at the signal each tries to pull the other 
up from the floor. 

The Palm Spring 1 

Stand at some distance from and facing the wall. Lean for¬ 
ward, supporting the body with the palm of the hand against the 
wall. Now spring back to place without moving the feet. 

Knuckle Down 

Place the toes against a chalk line, and kneel down and rise 
again without help of the hands and without moving the toes from 
the line. 

Stooping Stretch 

Place the outer edge of the right foot against a line drawn upon 
the floor, also the left heel at a little distance behind the right. 
With a piece of chalk mark the floor as far away as possible by 
stooping forward and passing the hand between the legs, regaining 
position again without removing the feet from the line or touching 
the floor with either hand. 

Pull Up Trunk 

(Boys or Girls) 

(Test of Strength and Body Control) 

Lie flat on the back and fold arms across the chest. Keep the 
knees straight. Pull trunk up without turning on the side. Keep 
the head erect. 

Full Knee Bend 

(Boys or Girls) 

(Strengthens Trunk. Endurance Test) 

Make full knee bend, holding trunk and head erect, hands on 
hips. Hold the position until muscles tire. 

1 Education by Plays and Games, Johnson. 


GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 163 

Side Hold 1 

(Boys) 

The boys stand side by side. Boy No. i puts his right arm 
around Boy No. 2, over his left shoulder, and grasps him under the 
right arm. Boy No. 2 puts his left arm around Boy No. 1, under 
his right shoulder, and grasps him under his left arm. Boy No. 1, 
with his left hand, grasps the right hand of Boy No. 2. Both 
wrestle from this start until one wins a “fall.” 

The boy having the under hold has the advantage. Conse¬ 
quently, the stronger or larger boy takes the upper hold. 



Common Hold Wrestling 


Hand Wrestling 1 

(Boys) 

Two boys stand facing each other, grasp right hands, place 
the outsides of their right feet together, and step backward about 
30 inches with each left foot. The object of the contest is to pull 
the opponent off his balance. When either foot of an opponent 
moves out of position it counts one fall. The original hand grip 


1 Health by Stunts , Pearl and Brown. 



164 


APPENDIX 



Indian Wrestling No. i 



must be held, but the body may be twisted and turned in any 
direction as long as the feet remain stationary. This wrestle may 
be done also by standing on the right foot only and holding the left 













GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 165 

one in the air. In this case a fall is counted when the foot on 
which the opponent is standing moves out of place, or when the 
other foot or any part of the body touches the ground. 

F. Balancing 

Spring Forward and Hold the Position 

This is just opposite from the usual kick. In a long kick for¬ 
ward the leg is made to reach as far as it will. It is a spring kick 
and ends with a leg, arms and trunk reaching forward together. 
If the balance is kept, this position is easily held. Success in doing 
it indicates a free body. The trunk supports the arms and legs. 

Spring Forward, Hold the Position and Squat 

(Boys or Girls) 

Make the spring as described above. Make it several times 
until the position is easy. Then squat, keeping the lifted leg 
straight front and the trunk still bending forward. 

Knee Bend and Touch 

(Boys or Girls) 

(Requires good balance and easy control of the body.) 

Stand on left foot. From behind grasp right foot in left hand. 
Touch bended knee to the ground and return to position without 
losing balance. 

Knee Spring 

(Boys) 

Boy No. 1 lies on his back with his knees up and his feet flat on 
the ground. Boy No. 2 takes a short run towards him placing his 
hands on the knees of Boy No. 1, and flipping his feet up over his 
head. Boy No. 1 aids him in landing by placing his hands so that 
the back of Boy No. 2 will strike them as he comes over. 

— Health by Stunts, Pearl and Brown. 


APPENDIX 


166 


Forward Lunge 

(Boys or Girls) 

Lunge forward with trunk stretched straight to the front one 
leg stretched straight back, opposite arm straight forward. 



Knee Bend and Touch No. i and No. 2 

Come up to position without touching hands to the floor. 


On One Foot Balance 

Stand on one foot, knee straight; bend the other knee, at same 
time lifting it high while trunk bends forward. Straighten to usual 
standing position, dropping the leg gradually and raising the trunk 
gradually. 


Walk on the Edge of a Plank 

A plank two by four inches and several feet long, standing on 
the two inch side, provides for this test. Walk the plank the 
entire length and back again without either foot touching the 
ground. 






GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 167 


G. Feats and Forfeits 

Balance Wrestle 1 

Two contestants stand each in a forward stride position, the 
right foot being lengthwise on a line (the same line for both con¬ 
testants) and the left foot back of it, turned at right angles to the 
right foot, with the heel touching the same line. The toes of the 
right feet should touch. In this position players grasp right 
hands. The objects of the game are to make the opponent (1) 
move one or both feet, or (2) touch the floor with any part of the 
body. A point is scored for the opponent whenever a player fails 
in one of these ways. After a trial has been made with the right 
hand and foot, the wrestle should be repeated with the left hand 
and foot extended, and so on alternately. 

Lunge and Hop Fight 1 

A circle six feet in diameter is drawn on the ground. One player 
takes a lunge position forward, so that his forward foot rests two 
feet within the circle. The second player stands in the circle on 
one foot with arms folded across the chest. The hopper tries to 
make the lunger move one of his feet. The lunger in turn tries to 
make the hopper put down his second foot or unfold arms. Either 
player is defeated also if he moves out of the circle. The lunger 
may use his hands and arms. 

Catch Penny 

One elbow is raised level with the shoulder, the arm being bent 
to bring the hand toward the chest. Three or four pennies are 
placed in a pile on the bent elbow. Suddenly the elbow is dropped 
and the same hand moved downward quickly in an effort to catch 
the pennies before they fall to the ground. 

1 Games for the Playground, Home, School , and Gymnasium — Bancroft. 
Copyright by the Macmillan Co. 


i68 


APPENDIX 


H. Requirements for Dairy Maid and Dressmaker’s 
Badge in Girl Scouts 1 

Dairy Maid 

Symbol — Milking Stool 

1. Take entire care of a cow and the milk of one cow for one 
month, keeping a record of quantity of each milking. 

2. Make butter at four different times, and submit statement 
of amount made and of the process followed in making. 

3. Make pot cheese; give method. 

4. Name four breeds of cows. How can they be distinguished? 
Which breed gives the most milk? Which breed gives the richest 
milk? 

5. What are the rules for feeding, watering and pasturing cows? 
What feed is best for cows? What care should be given cows to 
keep them in perfect condition? What diseases must be guarded 
against in cows? Why is it so imperative to have a cow barn, all 
implements, workers and cows scrupulously clean? 

6. Of what is milk composed? How is cream separated from 
milk? Name two processes and explain each. How and why 
should milk be strained and cooled before being bottled or canned? 

See Lesson XVII. 

References. — Stories of Industry, Vol. 2, A. Chase, Educational Pub. Co.; 
How the World Is Fed, F. G. Carpenter, American Book Co.; Foods and Their 
Uses, F. G. Carpenter, Scribner. 

Dressmaker 1 
Symbol — Scissors 

1. Must hold Needlewoman’s Badge. 

2. Must know the bias, selvage, and straight width of goods. 

3. Must cut and make a garment from a pattern, following all 


1 Scouting for Girls. 


GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 169 


rules and directions given. It is suggested that two girls work 
together on this. 

4. Be able to clean, oil and use a sewing machine. 

5. Demonstrate on other person the way to measure for length 
of skirt, length of sleeve, length from neck to waist line. Sew on 
hooks and eyes so they will not show. Hang a skirt, make a 
placket, put skirt on belt. Skirt must be hemmed evenly and 
hang evenly. 

6. Know what to do if a waist is too long from the neck to the 
waist line and does not fit well. 

See Lesson XVII. 

References. — Complete Dressmaker , C. E. Laughlin, Appleton; The Dress 
You Wear and How to Make It, M. J. Rhoe, Putman; The Dressmaker, Butterick 
Co.; Clothing and Health, Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley, Macmillan. 

I. Requirements for the Handicraft Badge in 
Boy Scouts 1 

To obtain a merit badge for Handicraft, a scout must: 

1. Paint a door. 

2. Whitewash a ceiling. 

3. Repair gas fittings, sash lines, window and door fastenings. 

4. Replace gas mantles, washers, fuse plugs, and electric light 
bulbs. 

5. Solder. 

6. Hang pictures and curtains. 

7. Repair blinds. 

8. Fix curtains, portiere rods, or blind fixtures. 

9. Lay carpets and mend clothing and upholstery. 

10. Repair furniture and china. 

11. Sharpen knives. 

12. Repair gates. 

13. Fix screens on windows and doors. 

See Lesson XVII. 


1 Boy Scout Manual. 


APPENDIX 


J. Exercises eor the Free Body 
Stretches 

The best kind of exercise for muscles is stretch¬ 
ing. The photographic illustrations show four 
kinds of body stretches. These loosen the 
muscles and free them. In doing the stretches 
make sure that you pull and really stretch them. 
If one wants to relax and rest his body muscles, 
it is well to give them a thorough stretching first. 
Pliable free muscles keep one’s body feeling 
fresh and new. 

Note. — Thanks are due Mrs. Glenn Smith Tinnin 
of the Florence Noyes School of Rhythmics, Washington 
Branch, for the illustrations used in this section. 


The Arrow 
Stretch 




The Seal Stretch 

A front trunk-abdomen stretch. 





GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 171 



The Cat Stretch 

A stretch on all fours. 



An All-the-way-through Stretch 

Exercises for the Spinal Column 


The spinal column will bend a little all along its parts. The 
muscle pad between each bone allows motion. By taking the 
position shown in the first picture on page 172, one can roll back 
and forward with a movement very like that of a rocking chair. 
This rolling movement is excellent for keeping the spinal column 
exercised and flexible. 






172 


APPENDIX 





First Position 


Rolling Backward 


Rolling Forward 








GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 173 


The Body Relaxing 

In the illustrations below the trunk is moved from the waist line 
and rolled round and round in one direction and then round and 
round in the other. See how comfortable and drowsy you can be 
when taking such exercise. See how free and agile your body feels 
after you have finished. 





First Position Second Position 





Third Position Fourth Position 













INDEX 


American soldiers, how they make 
their bodies sound, 8f.; shoes 
of, 79 

Backbone, The, motion allowed by, 

31 f.; how it helps in balancing, 

32 

Balancing, observations about, 55 f. 

Balancing performances: Knee bend 
and touch, 165; forward lunge, 166; 
on one foot balance, 166; spring 
forward and squat, 166; walk on 
edge of plank, 166 

Bodies: Hunger of our bodies to do 
things, 1; questions on strong, 5; 
questions on sound, 8; feeding our, 
nf.; keeping from growing stiff, 
27; motion of our, 31 f.; causes 
leading to crooked, 56 f.; some good 
from having straight, free, 57 

Boy Scout, A, 3 f. 

Boy Scout badges, requirements for 
the handicraft badge, 169 

Brain, uses and value of the, 109; 
location of the functioning of the, 
110; care of the, hi 

Breathing, how to breathe properly, 
73; exercise in, 75 f. 

Children’s clinics, what they are, 9; 
purpose of, 10 

Coffee, harm in using, 126 f. 

Dental clinics, 49 

Ears, defective hearing coming from 
disease of the, 96; differences in, 97; 
why we want good, 97; diagram 


showing structure of the, 98; 
questions on the, 98 

Exercise, amount for boys and girls, 
20; importance of, 26; the hunger 
for, 26; how to have healthful, 28; 
creatures in nature take, 29; ques¬ 
tions on, 29 f. 

Eye glasses, fitting the eyes for, 43; 
the right, 43; why thirteen musi¬ 
cians wore, 43 

Eyes, structure of the, 39; defective 
or faulty, 39; how to find defects 
of the, 40; need for resting the, 40; 
why we want good, 40; good light 
for the, 40 f., 43 f.; care in avoiding 
accidents, 41; creatures in nature 
have different kinds of, 42; ques¬ 
tions on the, 46 

Feats and forfeits, 167 

Feeding, of our bodies, nf.; on 
potato plants, 12 f.; questions of 
feeding of the body, 15 f. 

First aid, definition of, 136; reasons 
for learning, 136; beginning of, 
137 f.; questions on, 141 

Foods, uses of different, 11; diseases 
for lack of proper variety of, 12, 20; 
need for eating different, 12; reason 
for cooking, 10; on cooking of, 19; 
care of, 20; wild life securing, 24f.; 
questions on care of, 25 

Games: Chain tug of war, 153; leap 
frog, 153; catch basket, 154; dodge 
ball, 154; balance, wrestle, 167; 
catch penny, 167; lunge and hop 
fight, 167; pick me up, 167 


175 



176 


INDEX 


Germ diseases, prevention of, 142 f., 
148 f.; protection of plants and 
animals from, 144; discoveries re¬ 
garding, 145 f. 

Girl Scout, how to become a, 5; 
highest honor for a, 84 f. 

Girl Scout badges, requirements 
for a dairy maid badge, 168; 
requirements for a dressmaker 
badge, 168 f. 

Habits, forming of, 119; law in form¬ 
ing, 120; animals learn, 120 f.; 
questions on, 121, 125; seven im¬ 
portant, 122 f.; examples of habits 
in honesty and thrift, 124 f. 

Health departments, need for in pre¬ 
venting disease, 151 

Health officer, need for a, 151; service 
of, 151 

Helen Keller, education of, 100 f. 

Hurdle races, description of, 68 f. 

Jumping, The Boy, 38 

Jumping games: A hop and leap step, 
156; standing hop, step, and jump, 
156; throw weight and jump, 156; 
a victory leap, 157; running broad 
jump, 157; the hop, step, and 
jump parade, 157 

Laveran, Dr., discoveries of, 147 

Life-saving service, 139 f. 

Lungs, exercise of the, 26; growth of 
the, 73; importance of having good, 
73 f.; circumference of the, 75; 
questions on the, 77 

Milk, important facts about, 20; 
important for every one to use, 20; 
dishes of food made from, 23; 
experience in feeding rats, 25 

Mind, The, imagination of, 114; 
kingdom of, 116; the animal mind, 
117; questions on, 117 f. 


Movements, of animals, 35 f., 79 f-; 
of boys and girls, 36 f. 

Muscles, their hunger for exercise, 26; 
building strong, 26 f.; growth of 
the, 31, 34; illustration of the 
attachment of the muscles to the 
body frame, 33; free motion 
allowed by the, 34 

Nervous system, The, purposes served 
by, 105 f.; training of, 106; the 
nervous system of nature creatures, 
106 f.; diagram showing arrange¬ 
ment of, 107; question on, 108 

Odors, a clean skin protects from bad 
body, 91 f.; facts about the odors 
of insects, beasts, and man, 94 

Pasteur, discoveries of, 145 f. 

Performances that can be timed and 
measured, 155 

Play (also see Games) of children, 
67 f.; of creatures in nature, 71; 
questions on, 72 

Posture, how to have erect bodies, 
53 f- 

Red Cross Health Center, A, 8 

Relay races: Potato relay, 159; 
simple relay, 160; hurdle relay, 
160 f.; square relay, 161 f. 

Rest, importance of taking, 81; helps 
for taking, 82 

Ross, Dr., discoveries of, 147 

Rough and ready games, 153 

Running, the boy, 36; good, 158; 
walking and, 159 

Safety First, need for habits of, 129 f.; 
examples in the nature world, 130 f.; 
essay on safety, 132 f.; helps in 
learning, 134!.; questions on, 135 

Sense of taste, of insects and other 
animals, 18 



INDEX 


177 


Sense of touch, facts about the, 93 

Setting-up exercises, 58 f. 

Shoes, the right kind of, 79 

Sitting, the girl, 37 f. 

Skeleton, The body, free motion al¬ 
lowed by, 31; questions about, 

Skin, The, purposes served by, 91 f.; 
structure of, 92; facts about the 
covering of lower creatures, 94 f.; 
questions on, 95 

Sleep, good, 81; importance of, 81; 
helps for having good, 82; questions 
on rest and, 82 

Sounds, differences in the hearing of, 
96 

Special senses, their use in learning, 
99; training the, 99 f.; their use to 
Helen Keller, 100 f.; their uses 
among the wild life, 103 f.; ques¬ 
tions on the, 104 

Spinal column, The, how it allows 
freedom of movement, 32 f. 

Spine, The, 32 

Standing, the right way of, 53; 
strong bodies needed in standing 
erect, 53; way in testing the 
posture in, 54 f.; questions on the 
right way of, 57 

Stunts old and new: Knuckle down, 
162; pulling sticks, 162; pull up 
trunk, 162; stooping stretch, 162; 
the palm spring, 162; full knee 
bend, 163 


Tea, harm of using, 126 f. 

Team ball games, 154 

Teeth, need of a dentist in the care 
of our, 47; how to save our, 47 f.; 
arrangement of- the, 48; time of 
appearance of the, 48; kinds of, 48; 
growth of the, 64 f.; facts about 
the teeth of animals, 65 f. 

Theodore Roosevelt, how he became 
a man of vigor, 2 f. 

Throwing, The Girl, 36 f. 

Throwing games, 155 

Tobacco, harm of using, 126, 127; 
questions on the harm of using, 
127 f. 

Trunk, why it should be exercised, 34 

“Typhoid Mary,” 149 f. 

Vegetables, cooking of, 17; caring for, 
21; need of, 21; providing, 23 f. 

Vertebrate animals, definition of, 31; 
facts about the movement of, 35 f. 

Vision, importance of testing, 40 

Walking, rate of, 3; right way of, 78; 
rhythm in, 79; questions on, 80 

Work, ways of making it easier to do, 
87 f.; questions on making work 
easier, 89 f. 

Wrestling stunts: Side hold wrestle, 
163; illustration of common hold 
wrestling, 163; hand wrestling, 
163 f.; illustration of Indian wres¬ 
tling, 164 


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